The Washington Post did a good article about the top-ranked junior player in the United States. Ariel Hsing is only 12 years old but is one of the top young table tennis players in the world. She is competing this weekend in Philadelphia for a chance to represent the United States in the 2008 Olympics.
In between her commitments as a seventh-grader at Chaboya Middle School in San Jose, Hsing practices for three hours each day with a cadre of coaches and spends her summers training in China. Her parents invited a professional Chinese player to live with them in San Jose, where he functions as Hsing’s practice partner. They plan to replace him with another professional player soon — assuming they can find one capable of challenging Hsing.
Her career, remarkably, has exceeded even those initial expectations, convincing some in the table tennis community that Hsing is the most talented U.S. junior in decades. She won her first national title at 8 and accepted sponsorship from Butterfly — a major table tennis manufacturer — at 9. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett sent a private jet for Hsing in 2007 so she could play against investors during an annual meeting. She held court for three hours, never losing a game.
Here is video of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates playing Hsing earlier this year in Omaha, and here is a picture.
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