Ariel Hsing

A member of the U.S. table tennis team since the age of 13, Hsing used a come-from-behind six-game victory over 43-year-old Canadian veteran Chris Xu to claim the first spot available for the United States in April. Showing experience beyond her years - she's now only 16 - Hsing was able to exploit Xu’s defensive-minded tactics and claim victory after facing an early two-games-to-one deficit. She has used a six-day training schedule in which she practices between three and five hours a day to perfect her skills, becoming the youngest women’s national champion in history as a 15-year-old. Hsing had a major breakthrough by winning at the Pan American tryouts in 2010, qualifying her for that year’s youth Olympics in Singapore, where she became one of the youngest players ever in that event. She won a bronze medal at the 2011 Pan Am Games as part of a huge year in which she repeated as national champion, won the mixed doubles national title and won the North American Cup. Hsing and teammates Lily Zhang and Timothy Wang trained together for a four-year span at the India Community Center in California under coach Rajul Sheth, a former member of India's national team.