Gold again for 80-year-old ping pong champ

Oct. 20—ASHLAND — Winning a gold medal is nothing new to Tom Salyer.

The 80-year-old has won more than 20 of them playing his favorite sport — ping pong.

Salyer, a Morehead State University graduate, started playing ping pong in college. Before that, he knew nothing about it.

"I'm from Salyersville. They'd never seen a ping pong ball," he said.

Some might know him from his years as an educator in the Boyd County school system. Others might know him from his restaurant endeavors with fellow educator Tom Scott: the two of them owned five Western Steer Steakhouses and seven Tom's Pizzas in the region. He also owned Tom's Discount Tobacco until about 10 years ago. That's when he started getting serious about ping pong.

When the Kentucky Senior Games came to Ashland in 2008, Salyer got involved. While he didn't win a medal at that time, we went on to win his gold medals and 12 silver medals participating in the games in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio.

He played in the nationals in 2015 and is on track to play in the next nationals, which will be in Florida next year, because he won gold for ping pong at this year's state games on Oct. 2 in Lexington.

He plays singles and doubles, which he said gives him the chance to win more medals.

"My partner (Tony Albrecht from Portsmouth) is 10 years younger than me, so I had to drop down and play in that age group, but we won," he said.

The two traveled to the game with two other local players: Dennis Durst, of Flatwoods, and Win Tun, of Ashland.

"We were all four in different age groups," Salyer said. "Every one of us got a gold."

Salyer has supported other sports in the area. He played tennis for 45 years and brought the school's first tennis team to Boyd County High School when he was assistant principal.

Salyer and a handful of others brought pickleball to Ashland about six years ago.

"There is a correlation between tennis, pickleball and ping pong, especially tennis and pickleball in hand-eye coordination," he said. "I can spot a person who comes out to play pickleball, when I see him stroke, if he's an ex-tennis player, I can spot them immediately. He'll pick it up faster."

Salyer also is responsible for giving ping pong players in the area an outlet.

"Three other guys and I met with the Kyova Mall and they gave us a room in the mall to form the Ashland Table Tennis Club," he said.

At one time, the club had nearly 40 members, coming from Greenup and Carter counties in Kentucky and Cabell in West Virginia.

"We even had a couple from Charleston that came occasionally," he said.

The group began meeting about 10 years ago, and continued until the COVID-19 pandemic started and the mall closed. But Salyer had a solution to that problem.

"I turned my basement into a ping pong place," he said. "Here there are only two tables. We meet at my house Tuesday and Thursday at 5 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.

"Not as many people come out, but we have six to 10 show up at a time."

That's plenty of play, but that's not the only exercise Salyer gets. He said he also goes 45 minutes of cardio and weight lifting at the Ashland Area YMCA, all to continue his good health.

"The main thing is the mental and physical exercise," he said. "The No. 1 thing is exercise keeps people from getting Alzheimer's and the No. 1 sport is ping pong because you have to react quickly and get the ball back quickly. In tennis and basketball, you have some time to think. Ping pong keeps your mind and body sharp."

That's not all.

"The friendships you form are lasting. I have several friends I'd never have had if it weren't for ping pong," he said. "It's a lot of fun and a lot of challenge and a lot of good people playing ping pong."

(606) 326-2661 — lward@dailyindependent.com