Young table tennis star and social media phenom Samuel Shwe staying grounded after achieving WA-first

At 11 years old, Samuel Shwe’s junior world ranking is not far off his age.

And after a year full of medals and title triumphs, the Victoria Park schoolkid is looking to cement his growing reputation as one of Australia’s top young table tennis prospects.

Ranked 14th overall in the World Table Tennis’s under-11 rankings, Shwe’s exploits have caught the eye in cyberspace.

He boasts more than 16,000 followers on Instagram and over 13,000 on Facebook, but the school-aged star in the making is more than just social media metrics.

In September, he became the first Western Australian to win a World Table Tennis WTT Youth Contender when he triumphed in Varazdin in Croatia, shortly after winning a silver at the same event in Otocec.

He then won silver in the under-11 category at Perth’s inaugural Youth Contender held in October, adding to the best under-11’s player award he won at the Australian National Championships in July after snaring two gold medals, two silvers and a bronze.

It has been an incredible year for Shwe, but he is remarkably humble and said his experiences on the world stage simply made him want to become the best player possible.

“It feels amazing. I’m proud to represent WA and Australia, and it shows that kids from Perth can also compete with the best in the world,” he said.

“I love travelling. I love competing, and I love training every day with world-class players, and it pushes me to get better fast.”

Shwe said it was tough competing against international players, but he was grateful for the experience.

“You have to change the strategy a lot, have service changes, I have to play a lot of styles,” he said.

“I learned quite a lot, I try to learn from each game I play. If you believe in your goals and have the courage enough to speak it, it will happen.”

Shwe, who has been playing table tennis since he was eight, is planning on training in Asia over the summer as he targets another rise up the rankings and success at under-13 level.