July 29, 2010
YOG The Event Of The Year For U.S. Star Ariel
 Ariel Hsing Photo Courtesy of USA Table Tennis |
Courtesy of USOC But, for American paddler Ariel Hsing, 14, no competition this year will be more important than the Youth Olympic Games (YOG). |
"The YOG is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she told The Straits Times over the telephone from her home in San Jose, California. “Not only am I very lucky to be in this age group, it’s also the first YOG. This is my only chance."
But do not expect her to be intimidated. Not after facing down the stares of Buffet, one of the most successful investors in the world, and Gates, the founder of Microsoft.
In 2005, Buffett, an avid table-tennis buff, invited Ariel to his 75th birthday party, where she played a friendly match against him and Gates.
They lost, but Buffet was so impressed with the then nine-year-old that he invited her to attend the festivities associated with his company Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2007. She flew to the venue by a private jet.
"They had cookies on board and I ate lots of those. And there was so much leg room," she said.
Buffet and Gates, who both know a thing or two about returns, could not retrieve Ariel's shots during a friendly game. They lost again.
But, at least this time, Ariel knew who she had just defeated.
"The first time, I didn’t really know what was going on," she said. "Later I asked my parents 'Who are they exactly?' But they are very down to earth, like normal people you'd meet."
In fact, her computer engineer parents Michael and Jiang Xinhua were initially more thrilled about meeting Buffett and Gates than she was.
"To Ariel, they are just like uncles from another club,” said Michael. “My wife and I never thought we’d meet the Stock God and the Computer God."
There was a third encounter with Buffet two months ago, again at his company's annual meeting.
"He offered to give a box of chocolates to any shareholder who could win a game against me. Nobody got chocolates that day," said the top-ranked American junior, before breaking into a giggle.
Named after the protagonist of the Disney movie The Little Mermaid (her parents initially almost named her after Pinocchio), few would argue over her status as a ping-pong princess. Teammate and former women’s doubles world champion Gao Jun, 41, believes Ariel is "the future of American table tennis".
At 13, she became the youngest player to qualify for the national team after finishing second at the 2008 National Championships.
Her achievements have not gone unnoticed by the American media. In February last year, she was a guest on The Bonnie Hunt show – a talk show which has featured the likes of Robin Williams, the Backstreet Boys and Heidi Klum.
But Ariel is hungry for more success, starting with a medal in the girls’ singles at the YOG. The princess is then hopeful of being crowned queen someday.
"After the YOG, my goal is to be the national champion, to be an Olympian and a world champion one day," she said.
In preparation for the YOG, the ninth grade – equivalent to Secondary 3 in Singapore – student is training up to six hours a day, six days a week.
Outside of her club training, she also trains at home. A few years ago, her parents, who spend close to US$30,000 ($41,000) a year on developing her game, built her a table tennis room in their backyard after she outgrew the garage.
Both locations have aided her growth as a paddler. Said Michael: "I believe our garage helped develop Ariel into a close-to-the-table, fast-attacking player since there wasn’t much space in there."
Although Ariel was able to beat her parents in table tennis from the age of eight, she has received total support from them as they have continued to play a big role in her sporting career.
Michael doubles up as a sparring partner and helps give her multi-ball training.
Despite spending countless hours on practice, Ariel has no regrets.
"I think if I weren’t involved in table tennis, I'd probably be 100 per cent focused on school, which wouldn’t be very fun," said Ariel, who dreams of attending Stanford University.
And what would she like to study there? "I have no idea. I'm still 14," she said. That can be easy to forget sometimes.
Table Tennis facts:
Events
– Mixed team (comprising one boy and one girl competing in a boys' and girls' singles tie and a mixed doubles tie)
- Boys' singles
- Girls' singles
Scoring System
- Team event: Team matches consist of the best-of-three matches, two singles followed by a mixed doubles match. Each match will be played to the best of five games.
- Singles events: All matches will be played to the best of five games, until the quarter-finals onwards, where matches will be played to the best of seven games.
- The first player to score 11 points wins the game. In the event of a deuce (i.e 10-10), a player must win by at least two points.
Venue
Singapore Indoor Stadium
Dates
Aug 21-26
Players to look out for
Yin Hang (China), Gu Yuting (China)
They are the Under-15 boys' and girls' world No. 1s respectively.
Yin swept three golds during an unbeaten run at the inaugural Asian Youth Games in Singapore last year.
Koki Niwa (Japan)
He is the 2008 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Junior Circuit Finals boys’ singles champion.
Yang Ha Eun (South Korea)
She has already won matches on the senior ITTF Pro Tour circuit. Earlier this year, she stretched China’s 2008 World Cup champion Li Xiaoxia, a former world No. 1, to a full seven games in an Asian Cup match.
Singapore's paddlers
Clarence Chew, 14
Isabelle Li, 15
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