Iulia Necula – The Importance Of Role Models

WomenWinning When Iulia Necula was a young girl growing up in Romania in the early 1990s, like many other girls, she took up gymnastics to follow in the footsteps of gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci. However, at eight years old, some coaches from the nearby Romanian Olympic Table Tennis Centre came to Iulia's school and identified her as a potential talent. 'What if I had been sick that day?' says Iulia, reflecting on how this event changed her life and set her on the path to playing professional table tennis, representing Romania in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and subsequently working for the International Table Tennis Federation.

In Romania, women's table tennis has traditionally been stronger than men's table tennis so there was no shortage of players to inspire Iulia, who says she has no 'one idol' but that she looked up to the 'older generation in table tennis and worked with world champions'. Now, in her work at the ITTF, Iulia is hoping to help create and showcase role models who can motivate the younger generation.

Iulia sees this as an important point in encouraging...