Freddie Mercury’s sporting talent emerged early, with classmates recalling his dominance at table tennis in India.
The Queen frontman, who would have turned 80 on Saturday, September 5, was an accomplished sportsman during his school years in India, with one particular talent standing out decades later to the people who knew and worked with him. Before Freddie Mercury became one of the most recognisable rock stars in the world, he was already making a name for himself in a very different arena.
Freddie Mercury was once an ‘unbeatable’ table-tennis player
Peter’s School, an English-style boys’ boarding school in Panchgani, India, for roughly eight years, having been sent there at the age of eight in late 1954 or early 1955. He remained there until 1962, leaving at around 16 before returning to Zanzibar. At the age of 10, he became a school champion in table tennis and was later awarded the trophy for ‘Junior All-Rounder’. Rana was one of Mercury’s classmates and was involved with The Hectics, the school band Mercury formed with four classmates when he was around 12, while he was still known by his birth name, Farrokh Bulsara.
I could never beat him, and Julian, who is a strong player, said, ‘I can’t beat that guy.’” Mack also revealed that Mercury was an excellent tennis player.
His school report was particularly revealing, describing him as an “unbeatable” table tennis player, while offering a rather less flattering assessment of his ability in cross-country running, where he was deemed “thoroughly mediocre”. “He played table tennis a lot with us,” Mack said. “He was also really good at tennis,” he said. Queen guitarist Brian May previously suggested that Mercury could “smash anybody to bits” on a table-tennis table, a claim backed up by Mack’s recollections. Peter’s school report described Mercury as an “accomplished boxer”, while former schoolmate Victory Rana remembered him as a talented all-round sportsman. But he was also a good sportsman – hockey, athletics, boxing,” Rana said. “I remember a boxing match where Freddie was really getting hammered in the ring, and we all kept telling him to concede the fight,” Murray recalled. He said he “loathed” cricket and long-distance running, describing himself as “completely useless at both”. “I could sprint, I was good at hockey, and I was just brilliant in the boxing ring,” Mercury once said.
Mercury attended St. It was during his time at St. Peter’s that Mercury’s sporting ability became apparent. Those early sporting skills were still evident decades later. Reinhold Mack, the celebrated German record producer better known simply as Mack, worked extensively with Queen and Mercury. Mack produced four of Queen’s albums, The Game, Flash Gordon, Hot Space and The Works, as well as Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy. Mack first met Mercury in Munich, where the pair bonded over drinks in a beer garden, eventually beginning a professional relationship that produced some of Queen’s most notable work. Speaking to uDiscover Music , Mack recalled that table tennis remained one of Mercury’s favourite ways to spend time away from the studio. “He was a really, really good table tennis player. Mack also remembered just how much fun Mercury could have when he was away from recording. “He was here for nearly two years. We didn’t work every day and if it was nice we would have the excuse not to go in the studio and just spend time having fun in the swimming pool. There was clearly more to Mercury’s sporting background than table tennis. That same St. Rana recalled a side of Mercury that contrasted with the flamboyant performer he would eventually become. “He (Freddie) was very much of a loner. Happiest when he was playing the piano, or in the art school. Another former classmate, Bruce Murray, remembered Mercury’s determination inside the boxing ring. “But, no. Freddie insisted on ‘fighting on till the end’, with blood all over his face. He could be very tenacious. Mercury himself later admitted that he had little time for some sports. Boxing was another matter. His love of sport also remained part of his life long after he had left school and become a global star.
Mercury died on November 24, 1991, aged 45, at his home, Garden Lodge, in London’s Kensington district.
“Ingrid and the kids used to go over and stay with Freddie in London,” he said. Mercury was, by all accounts, exceptionally good at table tennis. Mack’s memories of playing table tennis with Mercury offered a glimpse of the man away from the stage — competitive, playful and still happy to turn an ordinary afternoon into a contest. Mack’s memories became particularly poignant towards the end of Mercury’s life. “The last time I saw him I had been in Scotland and had a stop-over in London. He didn’t look that good – his illness wasn’t in the open, but it was the elephant in the room. “After that we talked on the phone, but he did not want me or my family coming to see him again. Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines Mack believed Mercury knew what was coming and wanted the people around him to remember him as he had been. “I think, which I admired, he knew he was going and he wanted to be remembered as he had been: full of life and playing table tennis or complaining about the food, or telling us about the things he loved and hated. “His personality was so great. He was a brilliant man. It was such a loss. He died from bronchial pneumonia, a complication brought on by AIDS. But among the memories left behind by one of rock’s most extraordinary performers is one that has little to do with music at all: Freddie Mercury standing over a table-tennis table, apparently very difficult to beat. Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.