Badda-Ping! The Whacky World of Olympic Table Tennis

In the 2000 Olympics, she played for the United States as Jasna Reed. And that's where the story gets complicated.

"By then Lupi and I were divorced, and I thought I'd go back to my maiden name, but people kept pronouncing it phallic," she says, smiling.

She figured she wanted a nice, simple, American-sounding name. At the time, she was dating Barney Reed, another top U.S. table tennis player, and he suggested she go to court and change her name to Reed. So she did.

Immediately, everybody in the world of table tennis thought they were married. But they weren't. And then they broke up, which made her new name irritating to both of them. Which is why she is thinking of changing her name again.

If she changes it before August, she could play in her fourth Olympics under her fourth name, which has to be some kind of world record.

But she can't decide what name to use. In 2001, in an interview with USA Table Tennis magazine, she said, "Maybe we can let all Table Tennis magazine readers make up some names and vote for them."

The readers of Table Tennis magazine failed to come up with a name. But there is one obvious possibility: Her doubles partner's name is Whitney Ping. If Reed changed her name to Pong, they would be a Ping-Pong team of Ping and Pong.

Jasna Reed doesn't think much of that idea. But Barney Reed loves it. He's eager for her to change her name so people no longer think they're married.

Just to make matters more complicated, Barney's doubles partner is Razvan Cretu, who is another ex-boyfriend of Jasna. And Lupi, her ex-husband, is also a member of the U.S. team. And Barney is dating Michelle Do, another member of the team.

"I'm known as the bad boy of table tennis," Barney Reed says.

He looks the part. At 26, he's got a mischievous grin and a hairdo that looks like a crew cut gone to seed.

"It's the electric-socket look or the Chia Pet look, depending on the day," he says. "Today it's the electric-socket look."

Reed earned his "bad boy" reputation back in 2002, when he tested positive for steroid use and was suspended for two years.

Steroids? In Ping-Pong?