Ariel Yenhua Hsing (born November 29, 1995) is an American

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics. Hsing became the youngest U.S. table tennis national champion in history in 2010 at age 15. She repeated as champion in 2011 and 2013. She is the first player from North America to win the Intercontinental Cup in 2012 with participants from Africa, Latin America, North America, and Oceania. She was a bronze medalist in women's team and women's singles at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

. Hsing was the women's singles champion at the North American Championships in the year 2013, and at the North America Cup in the year 2011 and 2012. During her junior career, she was ranked as high as 4th in the world in both the cadet (U-15) and the junior (U-18) age group. In May 2014, she became the first American-born player in the

China Table Tennis Super League China Table Tennis Super League (, CTTSL) is the top table tennis division under the Chinese Table Tennis Association. The last finisher of the CTTSL will be relegated to the China Table Tennis Jia League A Group. The top two finishers of the Ji ...

, signing a contract with Zhejiang Jinhua Bank.

Early life

Hsing was born in Fremont,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. Her mother, Xin Hua Jiang (), was born in China, and grew up in

Henan Province Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

. Her father, Michael Hsing (), is a computer engineer who was born in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

. Hsing started playing table tennis when her parents could not find a babysitter one night and brought the then seven-year-old to the

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

Table Tennis Club with them. She joined the Palo Alto Table Tennis Club junior training program under the head coach Dennis Davis. Ariel played her first table tennis tournament “2003 California Open” at age 7. She didn't quite know how to serve legally and was faulted more than ten times. She hung in there and won her first tournament. At age eight and a few days old, Ariel won her first national title “Girls 10 and Under” at the 2003 U.S. Nationals at Las Vegas. She then successfully defended her title in 2004 and 2005. On a side note, Ariel's mom also won a trophy at the same tournament. In July 2005, Ariel won all her matches at the 2005 Junior Olympics/Nationals held at New Orleans. She brought home six gold medals and a special “Joel Ferrell Sportsmanship Award,” which had her name engraved on a special plaque at the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) National Headquarter.

Career

In 2012, Hsing won the singles titles at the ITTF North American Cup and the United States Junior and Cadet Open. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and was seeded 46th in women's singles. Hsing is acquaintances with

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...

and

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

and used to refer to them as "Uncle Warren" and "Uncle Bill". She met Buffett at age 9 when one of Buffett's friends retained a table tennis coach for Buffett at his seventy-fifth birthday party and it was decided to have the 9-year-old Hsing play Buffett as a joke. Since then, Ariel has been invited to the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting to play table tennis with Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and the stockholders. Gates was present during Hsing's Round of 32 loss during the 2012 Olympics and hugged her as she left the court. On July 9, 2012, she appeared on an episode of the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

Figure It Out ''Figure It Out'' is an American children's panel game show that aired on Nickelodeon. The original series, hosted by Summer Sanders, ran for four seasons from July 7, 1997, to December 12, 1999. The show was revived in 2012, with Jeff Sutphen ...

''. She stumped panelists

Ciara Bravo Ciara Quinn Bravo (; born March 18, 1997) is an American actress. She began her career as a child actress, starring in the Nickelodeon series ''Big Time Rush'' and the Fox series ''Red Band Society''. She also appeared in the Nickelodeon televis ...

, Alex Heartman,

Leon Thomas III Leon G. Thomas III (born ) is an American actor, record producer, songwriter and singer. After early roles in Broadway and providing the singing voice of Tyrone on the Nick Jr. animated series '' The Backyardigans'' (2006–2008), he played A ...

and Stephen Kramer Glickman, for one round.

2012 London Olympics

Hsing entered the Olympics as the 46th seed and ranked 115th in the world. In the round of 128 Hsing defeated

Yadira Silva Yadira Silva Llorente (born 24 December 1985) is a Cuban-born Mexican table tennis player who participated in the 2008, 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics After winning several medals in the 2002 Cuban National Games and 2003 Junior ...

in 4 games (11-9, 11–8, 11–3, 11-5) in a match where she never trailed by more than 2 points. In the round of 64 Hsing defeated Ni Xia Lian of Luxembourg 4-2 (11-9, 10–12, 11–9, 11–5, 10–12, 12-10), In the round of 32 Hsing lost to the #2 seed and eventual gold medalist

Li Xiaoxia Li Xiaoxia (; born 16 January 1988) is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion. Career She trained in the Jiangsu Wuxi Shanhe Club in Wuxi, China. Her trainer is Li Sun, who is also the mentor of Olympic gold medal winner Zhang Yining. As ...

of China 4-2 (11-4, 9-11, 11–6, 6-11, 11–8, 11-9) with the longest rally of 18 occurring in game 6. After the loss Hsing said it was the best she had ever performed at a tournament giving herself a "10 out of 10, or maybe 9.9 as I wasn't quite there."

Personal life

Hsing has been blogging for espnW for her Olympic journey. After the Olympics, Hsing was selected as the 2012 Female High School Athlete of the year by San Jose Sports Hall of Fame. Hsing graduated from Valley Christian High School in San Jose in 2013. She is a graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

and was elected as Social Chair for the Class of 2017. Hsing speaks both

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

and

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

. She is featured in the documentary ''

Top Spin In ball sports, topspin or overspin is a property of a ball that rotates forwards as it is moving. Topspin on a ball propelled through the air imparts a downward force that causes the ball to drop, due to its interaction with the air (see Magnu ...

'' directed by Mina T. Son and Sara Newens. Ariel participated in Andy Akiho's Ping Pong Concerto, world premiered in Shanghai on July 18, 2015, at Shanghai Symphony Hall by

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra () is a symphony orchestra in Shanghai, China. Its music director is Yu Long. Founded in 1879, the SSO is the oldest Chinese symphony orchestra. Originally, it was known as the Shanghai Public Band, expanding in ...

. Ping Pong Concerto has also performed in Beijing, Guangzhou, Foshan, and is scheduled to perform in London and Hong Kong. Ariel is a contributing author of "2 Billion Under 20: How Millennials Are Breaking Down Age Barriers and Changing the World" by Stacey Ferreira and Jared Kleinert, which became the #1 New Release in Business Leadership on Amazon. In 2016, with her independent study of "Chinese Stock Market Anomalies: An Empirical Analysis,” Ariel was selected by China Hands Magazine as the 25 under 25: Leaders in U.S.-China Relations, which "profiles 25 students and professionals under the age of 25 who have demonstrated exceptional promise in China studies and in furthering the future of the U.S.-China relationship."

Competition records

*2015 North American Collegiate Championship – Women's Team Champion (Princeton University) *2015 National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) Championship – Women's Doubles Champion *2014 National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) Championship – Women's Team Champion (Princeton University) *2014 National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) Championship – Women's Singles Champion *2013 North American Championship – Women's Singles Champion *2013 North American Championship – Junior Girls' Team Champion *2013 North American Championship – Junior Girls' Singles Champion *2013 US Open – Women's Doubles, Mixed Doubles, Women's U21-Silver *2012 ITTF Intercontinental Cup – Women's Champion *2012 North America Cup – Women's Champion *2012 ITTF Brazil Open – Women's U21 Champion *2012 ITTF USA Junior & Cadet Open – Junior Girls Singles, Doubles, and Team Champions. *2011 North American Championship and Cup Women's Champion *2011 ITTF Junior Circuit Finals – Girls Singles 3rd place. *2011 Pan American Games – Women Team Bronze medalist *2011 Pan American Games – Women Singles Bronze medalist *2011 JUIC International Jr. & Cadet – Open Champion *2011 Canadian Junior Open – Team and doubles Champion, Single 2nd *2010 ITTF Global Cadet Challenge – Girls Single 3rd place *2010 ITTF Global Cadet Challenge – Girls Doubles 2nd place *2010 Inaugural Youth Olympic Games – USA representative *2010 North America Championship – Cadet Girls singles Champion *2010 North America Championship – Junior Girls 2nd place *2010 North America Championship Junior Girls Team Champion *2010 China vs. World Team Challenge – Represented Junior Girls World team finished 2nd place. *2010 Italian Junior & Cadet Open – Cadet Girls Singles Champion *2010 Italian Junior & Cadet Open – Cadet Girls Doubles Champion *2010 Safir International – Girls Under 16 Champion *2010 PanAm Youth Olympics Trial in El Salvador – Girls First Place *2009 North America Championship – Cadet Girls singles Champion *2009 North America Championship – Junior Girls singles Champion *2009 North America Championship Junior Girls Team Champion *2009 Pan American ITTF Cadet Challenge Trial Champion *2009 Canadian Junior open Cadet Champion *2009 Canadian Junior open Cadet Doubles Champion *2009 Canadian Junior open Junior Team Champion *2008 Pan American Junior Girls champion *2008 North America Championship – Cadet Girls singles Champion *2008 North America Championship – Junior Girls singles Champion *2007 U.S. National Championship – Junior Girls Singles Champion *2007 U.S. National Championship – Cadet Girls Singles Champion *2007 U.S. National Championship – Girls 13 and Under Singles Champion *2007 U.S. Open Championship – Girls 13 and under Singles Champion *2007 North America Championship – Cadet Girls singles Champion *2007 North America Championship – Cadet Girls Team Champion *2006 U.S. National Championship – Cadet Girls Singles Champion *2006 U.S. National Championship – Girls 13 and Under Singles Champion *2006 U.S. Open Championship – Girls 15 and under Singles Champion *2006 U.S. Open Championship – Girls 13 and under Singles Champion *2006 U.S. Open Championship – Girls 11 and under Singles Champion *2005 U.S. National Championship – Cadet Girls Singles 2nd place *2005 U.S. National Championship – Girl 10 and under Singles Champion *2005 Junior National under 10 Girls: Gold *2005 Junior National under 12 Girls: Gold *2005 Junior National under 14 Girls: Gold *2005 Junior Olympic under 10 Girls: Gold *2005 Junior Olympic under 12 Girl double: Gold *2005 Junior Olympic team under 16 girls: Gold *2005 Junior National/Olympic Joel Ferrell Sportsmanship Award *2004 U.S. National Championship – Girl 10 and under Singles Champion *2003 U.S. National Championship – Girl 10 and under Singles Champion

References

External links

* ** * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hsing, Ariel 1995 births Living people American female table tennis players American sportspeople of Taiwanese descent American sportspeople of Chinese descent American sportswomen of Chinese descent Olympic table tennis players of the United States Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics People from Fremont, California Sportspeople from Alameda County, California Table tennis players at the 2011 Pan American Games Table tennis players at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in table tennis Princeton University alumni Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games 21st-century American women