Ariel Hsing

Ariel Hsing

Ariel Hsing, October 2013
Personal information
Full name Ariel Yenhua Hsing[1]
Nationality American
Residence San Jose, California[2]
Born (1995-11-29) November 29, 1995
Fremont, California[2]
Playing style Shakehand
Highest ranking 73 (October 2012)[3]
Club Jinhua Bank (China)
Height 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)[2]
Weight 117 lb (53 kg)[2]
Ariel Yenhua Hsing
Traditional Chinese 邢延華
Simplified Chinese 邢延华

Ariel Yenhua Hsing (born November 29, 1995)[2] is an American table tennis 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 was a bronze medalist in women's team and women's singles at the 2011 Pan American Games. During her junior career, she was ranked as high as 4th in the world in both the cadet (U-15)[8] and the junior (U-18)[9] age group.

In May 2014, she became the first American-born player in the China Table Tennis Super League, signing a contract with Zhejiang Jinhua Bank.[10]

Early life

Hsing was born in Fremont, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her mother, Xin Hua Jiang, was born in China, and grew up in Henan Province. Her father, Michael Hsing, is a computer engineer who was born in Taiwan.[11][12]

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 Table Tennis Club with them.[13]

Career

In 2012, Hsing won the singles titles at the ITTF North American Cup and the United States Junior and Cadet Open.[14] She qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and was seeded 46th in women’s singles.[15]

Hsing is acquaintances with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates 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.[16] Gates was present during Hsing's Round of 32 loss during the 2012 Olympics and hugged her as she left the court.[17]

On July 9, 2012, she appeared on an episode of the Nickelodeon game show Figure It Out. She stumped panelists Ciara Bravo, Alex Heartman, Leon Thomas III and Stephen Kramer Glickman, for one round.

2012 London Olympics

Hsing entered the Olympics as the 46th seed [15] and ranked 115th in the world.[17]

In the round of 128 Hsing defeated Yadira Silva 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 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."[17]

Personal life

She graduated from Valley Christian High School in San Jose in 2013 and is currently a junior at Princeton University.[18] Hsing speaks both English and Mandarin Chinese.[19]

She is featured in the documentary Top Spin.

References

Hsing playing at the 2007 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
  1. ↑ "ITTF_Database – HSING Ariel Yenhua (USA)". Ittf.com. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ariel Hsing". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ "ITTF world ranking". ITTF. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
  4. 1 2 "XVI Pan-American Games Results Book" (PDF). ITTF. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  5. ↑ "Revenge is Sweet for Ariel Hsing". ITTF. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Graduation Day, Teenagers Capture ITTF-North American Cup Titles". ITTF. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Ariel Hsing Secures ITTF-North America Cup Crown in Resounding Style". ITTF. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  8. ↑ "ITTF U-15 World Ranking". Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  9. ↑ "ITTF U-18 World Ranking". Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  10. ↑ (Chinese) 首位引进乒超的美国球员邢延华
  11. ↑ Wade, Stephen (July 28, 2012). "Hsing advances to second round". NBC Olympics. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  12. ↑ Almond, Elliott (July 5, 2012). "The Bay Area's little-known table tennis mecca". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Ariel Hsing". Retrieved January 5, 2014.
  14. ↑ Marshall, Ian (July 5, 2012). "Ariel Hsing". ITTF. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  15. 1 2 "2012 Olympic Games: Women's Singles Seeding List" (PDF). International Table Tennis Federation. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  16. ↑ Florek, Michael (July 3, 2012). "Ariel Hsing is table tennis prodigy with influential fans". USA Today. Retrieved July 29, 2012.
  17. 1 2 3 Davis, Toby. "Gates flies in to hail "amazing" Hsing". NBC Olympics. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  18. ↑ Rolston, Dorian "Bullwhip backhands: A national champion as a freshman, Hsing looks to another Olympic run" Princeton Alumni Weekly, February 5, 2014
  19. ↑ Purdy, Mark (July 29, 2012). "Mark Purdy: San Jose's Ariel Hsing makes most of her Olympic moments at London Games". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved May 6, 2016.

External links

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