HOUSTON－Jim Butler has been a key figure in American table tennis down through the decades, and even with his professional career long behind him, the 50-year-old's passion for the game remains as strong as ever.

"I'm not sure why I love it so much. It's just something that's always been in my blood," he told Xinhua in a recent interview at a ping-pong club in Houston, Texas, where the World Table Tennis Championships began on Tuesday.

"I started playing table tennis when I was 5 years old, which was 1976. And I've been playing most of my life since then."

Butler was inducted into the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2011.Before he was out of the junior ranks, he had already won a remarkable 24 US national championships, according to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

His father, a recreational ping-pong player, taught Butler and his elder brother how to play in the basement of their home in Iowa. He first made the US national team at the age of 15.

Butler was ranked No 1 in the US and North America when he played professionally. His highest finish on the world stage was a bronze medal in the Team World Cup.

"Though I don't play professionally now, I do a lot of coaching and I do a lot of business in table tennis," said Butler, who these days works as a muscle rehab specialist.

"Table tennis has been a big part of my life and I think it'll always stay that way.

"What's most attractive about table tennis to me is it just brings me joy and I have a lot of fun playing it."

Butler insists that table tennis has taught him a lot about life, such as the value of hard work, discipline, teamwork and how to remain positive when things are not going to plan.

"So I still love to play. I love the friendships that it creates for me. And I love that it keeps you in really good shape," he said.

Butler was keen to stress the friendships he has made with Chinese players and coaches through the decades.

"I've spent most of my life in table tennis learning from the Chinese," he said. "Table tennis really helped me understand the Chinese culture and Chinese people."

Butler first visited China in 1980 as part of Ping-Pong Diplomacy, which helped ease the strained relations between the countries and eventually led to the normalization of bilateral ties.

"I'll never forget my first time in China when I was 9 years old," he said. "I just remember the Chinese people were so kind and so curious when we went there because they weren't used to seeing Americans and they brought their world champions to play with us."

Fifty years ago, the US table tennis team was invited to visit China following the conclusion of the world championships in Nagoya, Japan. The American players landed in Beijing on April 10, 1971, becoming the first US group to visit China since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.The Chinese team paid a return visit the following year.

"I think it's very special that the sport of table tennis was one of the tools that helped bring more love and friendship between America and China," he said. "Ping-Pong Diplomacy will always be a very special event that happened for this sport.

"Table tennis can definitely help friendship because it helps bring people together.

"That's why I have met so many great and talented Chinese athletes. If it did that for me, then it can do that for anyone."

Xinhua