2100...2200..those are good tournament ratings and not bad but nothing to cause too much excitement about if you're a top male player.....however, it's definitely something special if you're only 11 years old!!!  Ariel is the top junior for her age in the US and has won many national titles already.  At the 2005 Junior Olympics and Junior Nationals, Ariel took home 6 gold medals and the Joel Ferrell Award for outstanding sportsmanship and performance!  However, she does not consider getting 6 golds in one tournament her biggest accomplishment.  She  considers her biggest accomplishments to be being a member of the US National Cadet Under 15 Years Old Girls Team having just turned 10 and being invited to play in the Northern California Table Tennis League where she is many years younger than the next youngest player.  She is clearly the youngest player to ever make a US National Team.  The Northern California Table Tennis League is very happy that it can support and play a role in a talent like Ariel's development.  Ariel hopes her "big brothers and sisters" in Northern California treat her seriously so she can improve faster.  Ariel also excels in school and has been on the Gold Honor Roll at Evergreen Elementary School three times in a row.  She hopes to be an elementary school teacher once her playing days are over.

  Ariel dreams big and hopes to be World Champion one day.  When asked if she is going to be the Olympic Gold Medalist in 2016 when the Olympics could be here in San Francisco, Ariel said "I really, really hope so."  She is likely not far from the level of the best Chinese her age so could Ariel's potential be the most exciting thing that has happened in US table-tennis?  Ariel has been interviewed by KTSF 26, CBS5-Channel 5 and many more interviews will take place as the media becomes aware of her potential and follows her progress with keen interest. 

   How did her table-tennis career start?  Her parents could not find a babysitter for her and took her to the Palo Alto club when she was 7 and Ariel developed a strong liking for smashing the ball immediately.  The table-tennis world thanks all the babysitters for not being available!  How little incidents can change someone's life!  Her favorite player is Deng Yaping who is as famous in China as Michael Jordan is in the US.  She likes Deng because she "fights like a tiger."  Her interesting experiences include being invited to Warren Buffet's 75th birthday ping-pong party where she played with Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.  She was also flown in a private jet to Warren Buffet's annual shareholder's meeting in Nebraska where she beat all challengers for 3 hours.  Another interesting experience was playing 1988 Olympic Gold Medalist Chen Longcan during a Milpitas exhibition and she mishit a ball and scored a point off Chen! 

   To prove Ariel's passion for the game, she was hit in the head by a paddle in the 2004 Western Open and blood was everywhere.  She was taken to the hospital and did not cry at all but simply asked many times if she could go back and finish the match.  Her Dad started thinking at this point that Ariel "might someday make it."