Lily Ann Zhang (born June 16, 1996) 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 in London with teammates Ariel Hsing and Erica Wu. She also competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio with teammates Jiaqi Zheng and Jennifer Wu. She is a five time US national champion in women's singles. Zhang has won the US national championship in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019. In 2011, she was a bronze medalist in women's singles and women's team at the Pan American Games and won the women's doubles title at the Qatar Peace and Sport Cup. She is currently a member of the United States National Women's team. She has been ranked as high as #2 in the cadet (U-15) world ranking and #5 in the junior (U-18) world ranking.

Personal life

Lily Zhang was born in

Redwood City, California Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a ...

on June 16, 1996, to

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 ...

parents. Her family lived on the campus of Stanford University, where her father was then a mathematics professor. Her mother played for her province's table tennis team in

Xi'an, China Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqin ...

, and Lily enjoyed playing table tennis with her parents while she was growing up. Dennis Davis, a friend and table tennis colleague of her father, would also bring her to the Palo Alto Table Tennis Club to practice. Lily graduated from Palo Alto High School in 2014 before enrolling in the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. After her first year, Lily took a gap year off to train for the 2016 Olympic Games. For a part of her gap year, she trained and played league in Austria (trained at home club ICC as well). Lily is featured in the documentary '' Top Spin''. Lily is sponsored by JOOLA Table Tennis.

U.S. career

From a young age, Lily Zhang showed promising skill. When she was 7 years old, Dennis Davis, the president and head coach of the Palo Alto Table Tennis Club and the North American representative of the junior commission of International Table Tennis Federation, began training her. When she was 11, Zhang made the U.S. Cadet Team. By age 12, Zhang became the youngest player to ever make the U.S. Women's Team, and when she was 13 years old, she was the #2 ranked Junior Woman table tennis player in the United States. At the 2010 and 2011 U.S. National Championships, Zhang won the title in the junior girls' event and was the runner-up in women's singles. In 2012, she won her first national championship in women's singles, beating defending champion Ariel Hsing in 7 games.

International career

Since 2007, Zhang has competed in numerous international events in the cadet, junior girls' and women's categories.

2011 Pan American Games

Zhang participated in 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, ...

where she played both as an individual and as part of the United States team. Zhang and the two other Americans on the team, Ariel Hsing and Erica Wu, took home a team bronze medal. She also won a bronze medal in women's singles.

Qatar Peace and Sport Cup

On November 22, 2011, Lily Zhang and Russian Anna Tikhomirova won the Women's Doubles title at the Qatar Peace and Sport Cup.

2012 Olympics

After qualifying for the last singles position on the 2012 United States Olympic Team by beating Canada's Anqi Luo in five games in the North American Olympic Trials, Lily Zhang would head into London as the youngest player of the table tennis competition and was seeded 49th behind her teammate Ariel Hsing. In the first round, Zhang drew Croatian veteran Cornelia Molnar and lost in straight games (11–6,11–8,11–7,11–5). The team competition saw the United States play second-seeded Japan in the first round of proceedings. Zhang lost to Sayaka Hirano in straight games (11–9,11–5,11–3) and teamed with Erica Wu in the doubles to lose to

Kasumi Ishikawa (born 23 February 1993) is a Japanese table tennis player. A regular member of the Japanese national team, she won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics, a bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics ...

and

Ai Fukuhara is a retired Japanese table tennis player and Olympic medalist, winning silver at the 2012 Summer Olympics and bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics with the Japanese women's team. She is sponsored by All Nippon Airways. Table tennis career Fuk ...

, also in straight games (11–7,11–7,11–1).

2012 North American Championships

On September 2, 2012, Zhang won the women's singles title at the ITTF North American Championships with a victory over fellow 2012 Olympian Erica Wu in straight games (11–8,11–3,11–7,11–9). Twice before, at both the 2011 and the 2010 North American Championships she had failed to achieve the title, with losses in the finals on both occasions to Canada's Zhang Mo.

2012 World Junior Championships

At the 2012 ITTF World Junior Championships in Hyderabad, India, Lily Zhang reached the quarterfinals in singles and also led the USA into the quarterfinals of the team competition. As a result of her performance during the championships (12 wins, 2 losses), Zhang broke into the top 100 of the ITTF women's world ranking for the first time in her career.

2013 US Open

At the 2013 US Open, Zhang won the title in the junior girls' event. In women's singles (part of the ITTF World Tour), she beat Zhang Mo to advance to the semi-final, where she lost to world #19

Elizabeta Samara Elizabeta Samara (born 15 April 1989 in Constanța) is a professional Romanian table tennis and a three-time European champion. She is currently the player of CSA Steaua București. Samara previously represented Fenerbahçe SK. She has repres ...

in 5 games. Following this tournament, Zhang's world ranking improved to a career-high 84.

2014 Youth Olympic Games

In August 2014, Lily Zhang was the first ever US athlete to win a bronze medal in the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Youth Olympic Games, Summer Youth Olympic Games, an ...

. In the contest for bronze, she won over Miyu Kato of Japan in six games.

2019 ITTF Women's World Cup

She was in fourth place, losing in the POS 3–4 to

Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ) is a Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Harbin, China, she permanently moved to Singapore at the age of 20 under the former Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competi ...

. Zhang's performance included a high-profile upset over

Miu Hirano (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She comp ...

2020 ITTF Women's World Cup

Zhang extended her World Cup success in 2020 with an upset over

2021

At the Tokyo Olympics, after receiving a brief scare and dropping the first game in her opening round of 64 match against Nigeria's Offiong Edem, Zhang was able to quickly regroup and adjust to cruise to a 4–1 victory.

References

External links