Crystal Huang Yaoxi (; born July 6, 1979) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

table tennis player of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

origin.

Background

Huang earned a spot on the U.S. team for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by placing first over Canada's Zhang Mo in the women's singles from the North American Qualification Tournament in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Huang joined with her fellow players Wang Chen and five-time Olympian Gao Jun for the inaugural

women's team A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...

event. She and her team placed second in the preliminary pool round, receiving a total of five points, two victories over the Netherlands and Nigeria, and a single defeat from the Singaporean trio

Wang Yuegu Wang Yuegu (, ; born 10 June 1980) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player who was ranked among the top ten players in the world. Wang made her inaugural appearance as a Singaporean table tennis player on the International Tab ...

, Li Jiawei, and Feng Tianwei. The U.S. team offered another shot for the bronze medal by defeating Romania in the first play-off, but lost their next match to South Korea, with a unanimous set score of 0–3. In the women's singles, Huang lost the preliminary round match to Congo's Yang Fen, attaining a set score of 2–4. As of October 2010, Huang is ranked no. 196 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national 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 p ...

(ITTF). She is also left-handed, and uses the penhold grip. Huang currently resides with her family in

San Gabriel, California San Gabriel (Spanish for " St. Gabriel") is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. At the 2010 census, the population was 39,718. San Gabriel was founded by the Spanish in 1771, when Mission San Gabriel Arc ...

, and obtains a dual citizenship.

References

External links

* * *
NBC Olympics Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Crystal 1979 births Living people American female table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for the United States American people of Chinese descent Table tennis players from Hunan People from San Gabriel, California Sportspeople from California Sportspeople from Changsha Naturalised table tennis players 21st-century American women