Senior Olympian and table tennis player Larry Sanders began playing table tennis as a way to skip his classes at school.

Sanders said playing table tennis has become his escape.

“When you are playing you can’t think of anything else,” Sanders said. “You are too focused on strike strategy, playing offense and playing defense.”

Sanders and several of his friends would also play table tennis.

“I liked being able to play together and we played ten years in garages,” Sanders said. “I really like the friendship when we would get together and play regularly.”

Sanders, who has lived in Kalispell for over 55 years, has played table tennis all over the country.

“I played a lot,” Sanders said. “I will win (in certain locations), and against Las Vegas, you don’t get five points against anybody.”

Sanders said even if he qualified for the 2019 Senior Olympics in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he wouldn’t go.

“I know I wouldn’t want to go Albuquerque because it would be an embarrassment,” Sanders said.

The Senior Olympics also welcomed one of the world’s top table tennis players back from last year’s Senior Olympics, Gary Pastushok.

Pastushok, who was introduced to the game of table tennis by his Chinese roommate in college while attending the University of Manitoba, has worked on becoming nearly a 2,000-level player.

A former research scientist by trade, Pastushok has continued to teach the game of table tennis to several players around the United States in his second consecutive year of participating in table tennis.