We are so pleased that Lily Yip will be the coach this year for our W4A teams as they play for the third consecutive year in the Amity Foundation Philanthropic Table Tennis Tournament. It will take place in October 2026 in Nanjing, China. Lily led our teams the last two years, and they earned silver and bronze trophies in 2025. Below is an article about her being awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Table Tennis Hall of Fame. She will receive the award just before she leaves for Nanjing to lead our teams! Lily is the first Chinese American to receive this award. Enjoy the article!
Lily Yip Named 2026 Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame Honors Olympian, Champion, and Influential Coach
The U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame has announced that Lily Yip will receive the 2026 Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor recognizes her extraordinary lifetime dedication, achievements, and service to table tennis in the United States.
Born in Guangzhou, China, Yip started playing at age seven and became an elite competitor. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1987, became a citizen in 1991, and represented the country as a two-time Olympian (1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta). She also competed in multiple World Championships, World Team Cups, and three Pan American Games, winning two gold and four silver medals.
Nationally, she won four consecutive U.S. National Women’s Doubles titles (1992–1995) and reached the Women’s Singles final four times. In master’s events, she continued excelling, winning the Women’s Doubles World Championship (Over-55) at the 2024 ITTF World Masters in Rome (with partner Barbara Xiao Wen Chiu) and a bronze in Singles there, plus a silver in Singles at the 2018 World Masters.
As a coach, Yip has been named USA Table Tennis Coach of the Year four times. She notably coached Lily Zhang to a bronze medal at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games—the first such medal for a U.S. table tennis player.
Her most enduring contribution is founding the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center in Dunellen, New Jersey—a 15,000-square-foot facility with 24 tables, serving as a premier training hub. Recognized as a National Center of Excellence by USA Table Tennis and a World of Joola club, it offers year-round programs, camps, leagues, tournaments, and has trained top juniors and national team members with a large membership and coaching staff.
Yip was already inducted into the USA Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004 for her playing and coaching impact. The Mark Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates those who have shown exceptional commitment to the sport’s advancement, integrity, and growth—qualities Yip embodies through her ongoing influence on athletes, programs, and the table tennis community.
The award will be presented at the 2026 U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame ceremony the third week of October.
Content credit to Sean O’Neill
