During the opening ceremony, she had one cheek painted with the flag of China and on the other was the flag of the U.S. She is Wang Chen, born and raised in Beijing, now representing America for the 2008 Olympics in table tennis.

Wang Chen has grew up with the sport. Hand picked by the government at the early age of 7 for one of the country’s sports developmental schools (six hours every day for the first three years, and practicing table tennis from seven to ten each night!), she went pro at age 11 and climbed up to rank 4 in the world of table tennis. She retired back in 1998 and emirated to the U.S. in 2000…but apparently, ping pong never really left her.

Pushed aside in the 1996 Olympics for being too young and then in the 2000 Olympics for being too old, Chen decided to hang up the paddle. She would later move to the U.S., sparking interest in the Chinese-American community and pretty soon several parents would be asking to give their kids private lessons. Her coaching career was creating quite a stir and she would soon be coaching people of all ages including Jerry Wartski, which would be highly influential in her re-emergence in the sport.

Wartski, a Polish jew, is a survivor of the Nazi death camps of World War II. After his camp was liberated, he became displaced to various persons camps and to past the time, guess what he did? He learned to play some ping pong. Later in his life he would live in New York and make a living in real estate where he ended up with a table tennis school on Manhattan’s west side. Wartski hires Chen to manage the school and even puts her name on it. Talk about a story (You couldn’t even make up a story like that lol)!

It would be Wartski that motivated her back into playing the sport. Being likely to join the Olympic team after becoming a citizen, the fire re-ignited within her to pick up the paddle for competitive play. After so many times missing out on the Olympics, I know she couldn’t possibly exist. The thought of playing for the gold in her hometown might have been another motivator as well!

Wang Chen, along with 3 others, will be representing the U.S. in table tennis at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The odds are definitely against them as the Chinese women have won 17 of the past 18 world champions, and the men with 16. I wouldn’t cast out Wang Chen however, who’s been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and is hungry, motivated, and determined to do America and her hometown proud.

Wang Chen and Gao Jun made it up to round 2 for the bronze medal losing to South Korea…definitely a great effort, congratulations!

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