UTT 2025: A Mother first and Olympian afterwards, Britt Eerland at peace with her love for Table Tennis

Britt Eerland’s  Instagram bio says, “Three-time Olympian. One as a Mom!”

The 31-year-old takes pride in how she has managed to remain an elite table tennis player even after giving birth to daughter Zaya in March 2023.

The ‘Supermum,’ ranked 42 in the world, made her Ultimate Table Tennis (UTT) debut in Season 6 in Ahmedabad, where the Dutchwoman’s team, Jaipur Patriots, finished as runner-up.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Eerland tells  Sportstar about her comeback post pregnancy, the financial challenges of being a Dutch table tennis player, UTT vs. other leagues, and more.

Q. Can you sum up your overall UTT experience in terms of the format and the competitive nature?

A: In the beginning, I called it ‘Bollywood Table Tennis’ because it seemed like that. In the end, we just wanted to compete and win. I wanted to challenge myself. I’m someone who is really great at comebacks, but I don’t start that well. To have that extra sharpness and the pressure to start well, this format is perfect. If you don’t start well, you already lose the first game and one point for the team.

With WTT, everything is a little bit more individual, which sometimes is sad because we have a great sport. Here, we can help each other, fight together, and share information, which is really great.

Q. In your matches, you carry this special ‘Winnie the Pooh’ towel. I have also heard you dab it with perfume. What’s the story behind it?

A: The perfume bit is a mental trick somebody taught me. If you want to be in the match, you have to be in the “here and now.” If you’re thinking too much or judging yourself, then you cannot really see the game clearly. So, you can touch your fingers or your eyes, but you can also use the smell. I smell the perfume to come back in the moment .

Winnie the Pooh was one of my favourite cartoons when I was young and now, it’s my daughter’s. I have been in India for three weeks, which is the longest I’ve been away from my daughter. So, Winnie the Pooh is like her support for me to compete in the league. 

Q: On coming back from pregnancy and playing your third Olympics in Paris.

A: People called me a little bit naive. If I want something, I do it, and while on the road, I see if I can do it, and I thought the same when I was pregnant. I wanted to come back. But it was not as easy as I thought in my head. 

Luckily, I also have great people around me, and my coach was very helpful because I wasn’t just an athlete anymore. Being a mom is a big part of your life. So, we were really trying to find ways to combine motherhood with being an athlete and in the end, it worked well because I could qualify for the Olympics and even compete quite well there.

Q: Looking after your baby and yourself must have been the priority. What was the biggest challenge? 

A: Physically, you become really weak. I had to really walk over a line again to keep my balance. Before coming back to table tennis, for two months, every other day, we would do a gym session. I could not really practice twice a day anymore because it required a lot of organisation—where I could bring my baby and how I could fix it with my sleeping time or with her sleeping time. 

But also, table tennis felt like something where I could be me and not just a mom, which was really nice because now, I was so free and open. Earlier, it was like, “It’s only table tennis, and it feels so big,” but now, I could fully commit to it without judging myself because I was already happy to be there and play table tennis and compete. 

I was ready for the fight against my opponents, but of course, in an organisational structure, it’s very tough. In WTT, they have some rules due to which I had a protected ranking. But in ETTU (European Table Tennis Union), it was a bit tougher because I couldn’t compete in the Europe Top 16 Cup. 

Q: As a Dutch table tennis player, how do you manage your finances? Is UTT as lucrative as some of the European leagues that you are a part of? 

A: In Europe, luckily, you can play for clubs, which is mainly my major income. So, I played this season for Linz AG Froschberg, especially for the Champions League. So, that funding helped me a lot. I am in conversation with my federation and trying to work things out since I have no funding at all from the Olympic Committee.

Of course, I have Butterfly as a sponsor. The sponsorship in the Netherlands is very hard because they really want something for it. Promoting the brand is not enough. They want to see me do public speaking or conduct a table tennis clinic. So, I’m trying to do that, but as you know, I’m already a mom and an athlete, and it’s very hard already balancing that. To find sponsors as well and give something extra to them has been hard. 

(As far as UTT is concerned) My time is valuable, and I’m making different choices. I missed the World Championships due to injury. UTT is a new experience, but I also get money here. For me, it’s good enough to come here and compete, but also, money-wise, I needed to invest because, at the moment, I pay all by myself for my tournaments, training, coach, massage, physical practice, and psychologist.

Q: You’re quite vocal about mental health on social media. Can you tell us more about it?

A: I was really committed to qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016. Everybody told me that I had to do everything to go to the Olympics and have some result there. Also, I was the third member of my team and did everything to be in that position. That year, I was injured twice, and sick three times. I just couldn’t find my way. When we went to the Olympics, we lost the first round.

Then, the Netherlands decided that those who lost had to be sent back home, and it was called a “loser flight.” So, my first Olympic experience was not great at all, and after that, I felt I had lost myself. Then, I thought I would not be the athlete I was going to be.

I changed my mental game. I will just play the professional game how I believe is good for me as an athlete but also as a person. If I’m stronger in the mental game, I can compete better with the people, and if I lose, I would know at least I did my best and I did everything according to my values. 

Earlier, when I lost, I could really be angry with myself, but I found this way to become stronger and still have a healthy relationship with myself.