Mariana Sahakian plays table tennis. (Photo provided by the president of the Lebanese Table Tennis Federation. Edited by Jaimee-Lee Haddad / L'Orient-Le Jour)
On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, L'Orient-Le Jour wrote portraits of the nine athletes who make up the Lebanese delegation. Here is that of Mariana Sahakian, representing Lebanon in table tennis.No one has held the title of Lebanese table tennis champion for as long as she has: 12 years. She has won all the national titles – the most recent being in Armenia – for years. She won the Arab Table Tennis Cup in singles and the West Asian Championships in doubles. This summer, in Paris, Mariana Sahakian, 47, is representing Lebanon for the second time at the Olympic Games, after Rio de Janeiro in 2016, following her victory last May at the West Asian qualifying tournament in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq. This win, crushing (4 sets to 1), almost had the taste of revenge against her regional rival, Syria's Hind Zaza who defeated Sahakian...
On the occasion of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, L'Orient-Le Jour wrote portraits of the nine athletes who make up the Lebanese delegation. Here is that of Mariana Sahakian, representing Lebanon in table tennis.No one has held the title of Lebanese table tennis champion for as long as she has: 12 years. She has won all the national titles – the most recent being in Armenia – for years. She won the Arab Table Tennis Cup in singles and the West Asian Championships in doubles. This summer, in Paris, Mariana Sahakian, 47, is representing Lebanon for the second time at the Olympic Games, after Rio de Janeiro in 2016, following her victory last May at the West Asian qualifying tournament in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq. This win, crushing (4 sets to 1), almost had the taste of revenge against her regional rival, Syria's Hind Zaza who defeated...