Name: Guo Yue (郭跃, no relation to the Ms. Guo I previously profiled)

Age: 19 (dob: July 17, 1988)

Hometown: Anshan, Liaoning Province

Previous Olympic Medals Won: Bronze in Women’s Table Tennis Doubles at Athens ‘04

    It must kinda suck to be a female table tennis star in China. Filling the shoes of legends like four-time Olympic gold-medalist Deng Yaping requires exceptional skill and unwavering dedication.

    But to be a female table tennis star from China’s northeastern Liaoning province, home to such puissant ping-pong prodigies as Wang Nan, Chang Chenchen, and Li Jia, an athlete must work tirelessly to distinguish herself. Somehow Guo Yue has accomplished the seemingly impossible, winning international titles and popular acclaim in a country lousy with the world’s most talented table tennis players.

    Maybe her easy smile beguiles fans. Or maybe there’s something about how deferential she is, often praising opponents after defeating them and attributing her victories to good fortune and hard work, that appeals to painfully modest citizens of the Middle Kingdom. Certainly, Guo would never dream of comparing herself to her illustrious predecessors.

    She’s content to let her paddle do the talking instead. In 2003, Guo became the youngest finalist in the International Table Tennis Federation ProTour’s history, eventually losing to fellow countrywoman Zhang Yining, who went on to win two gold medals in the ‘04 Olympics. At Athens Guo herself demonstrated impressive poise for someone so young (she was only 16 at the time, although by then she’d been playing ping-pong for more than a decade), walking away with a bronze in doubles competition.

    Despite a series of disheartening losses that led her to take almost six months off from competition in 2005, she has since returned to the sport looking better than ever. On May 26, 2007 she won the world championship by beating compatriot Li Xiaoxia. (As I previously pointed out in my profile of Wang Liqin – who, incidentally, won the World Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Championship with Guo in 2007 – Chinese table tennis players are so overwhelmingly dominant that they often wind up competing against one another in the finals of otherwise international events). Now if only she can replicate her recent success in August.