In an arena filled with hundreds of people at the U.S. Women’s National Junior Championship, Palo Alto High School student Lily Zhang (‘14) felt the pressure as her opponent was preparing to serve for match point. She recalls the sweat dripping down her face and her palms beginning to clam up. Holding a one-point lead, knew that everything she had sacrificed for was for this one play, this one moment.

“Everything was on the line,” Lily said. “ I had worked so hard to get here and it all came down to this.”

Her opponent blasted the ball over the net. Without hesitation, she returned it back, feeling the rush of adrenaline spreading to her head. She had returned long-time rival Ariel Hsing’s serve one last time to clinch the U.S. Women’s National Junior Championship. This tournament marked a pivotal point in her career, but how did her journey begin?

As a wise man once said, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” On the surface, Lily may appear to live the perfect life, participating in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London at age 16, traveling, missing school, receiving sponsorships, gaining college attention and much more, but in reality, it is far from that. Between the lines, she has encountered many obstacles, making her road to glory more difficult than people might think.

When she was 12, while most children her age were attending Bar Mitzvahs and birthday parties in the summer, she traveled to China for intense table tennis training. At age 14, when other lads were spending time with their peers, she was practicing four hours of table tennis on a daily basis. At age 16, at the time many of her high school classmates pursued their drivers’ licenses, she trained all summer and competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Starting from ground zero to now ranked sixth in the world for girls age 18 and under, Lily truly has never lived a normal life.

It all began for Lily at age seven when she went to the India Community Center (ICC) Table Tennis Program with childhood best friend and current Paly student Felicia Wang (‘14).

“It started out as something just for fun and not serious,” Lily said.

For the next two years, she practiced occasionally, playing every now and then for the enjoyment of the game. Soon after, she began to feel a strong connection with the sport, gradually taking it more seriously and participating in many local tournaments. Then, at age nine, she traveled to the U.S. Women’s National Table Tennis Tournament. Although she did not make the cadet team for players 15 years old and under, she had the opportunity to experience the world of competitive table tennis.

“I saw the competitiveness and everything and I just thought it was so cool,” Lily said.

“That was the point where I really wanted to start playing and my goals started to go up.”

The next year, Lily fully dedicated herself to the sport, qualifying for the cadet team at age 10. Just four years after picking up a paddle, she became the youngest person to qualify for the U.S. Junior National Team. Not only did she make the team from which she had been cut a year before, but she also placed second overall in the tournament.

“At that moment, I just really started to like everything about the sport; how uptempo it is and how there’s a lot of mental game too,” Lily said.

Due to her true commitment to the game, Lily’s success augmented. At age 13, she made U.S. history by becoming the youngest person ever to qualify for the women’s national team. But despite the accomplishments early in her career, Lily expressed uncertainty of her future going into high school.

Practicing two two three hours per day plus four to five hours on weekends, she must balance the demands and pressure of table tennis and school. Although her parents support Lily in her ambitions, they also feel that the balancing of both is often too much for a teenager to handle.

“Sometimes we think she can easily handle her schoolwork without spending too much time on table tennis,” her father Bob Zhang said. “But she has to make double the effort to manage both.”

With an immense amount of training and constant schoolwork, Lily must forfeit time with her friends and family. However, she is willing to make the sacrifices in order to play the sport she loves.

As her father points out, in some ways she is at a disadvantage encountering players who commit full time to the sport, while Lily also has additional priorities.

“The athletes from many other countries are training full time,” Bob said. “But she has to compete with them.”

Sure enough, upon entering high school and dealing with the larger workload, she also started facing some of the toughest competition in the world and fell into a major slump.

“I was playing really bad, and I lost to everybody and I wasn’t improving, and everyone was saying that I was done, that I couldn’t go further anymore,” Lily said. “But I didn’t give up.”

Her struggles continued at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where, despite her hard work and dedication, Lily did not play anywhere near her full potential and ended up without a single victory. Although encountering tough losses in the biggest event of her career, she was still grateful for the opportunity and experience of being able just to participate in the Olympics, and for all the support she received from friends and family.

“At first I was really disappointed in myself,” Lily said. “I went to the Olympics and I didn’t play well at all, but it just motivates me for the next Olympics to play better. This summer’s Olympics gave me a lot more experience. I know what the atmosphere is like. I know how to adjust to different difficulties.”

The struggles Lily has faced have became a major turning point in her career, as she learned to bounce back and grow stronger, making her into the girl she is today. Good friend and classmate, Caroline Moeser (‘14), describes her as a valuable friend who is genuinely humble.

“Lily is really nice and friendly,” Moeser said. “She is very modest and not cocky at all.”

Her Olympic teammate, Erica Wu, also shares Moeser’s sentiments, characterizing her as an exceptional teammate on and off the court.

“During matches Lily is very calm, collected, and intensely focused, but off the court she’s hilarious.” Wu said. “I love being her teammate and roommate.”

Not only do her friends speak very highly of her, as do her teachers, characterizing her as a reserved student who, despite frequent absences is competent in getting her work done.

“Lily balances her academic world and her athletic world brilliantly, she’s working at the highest levels,” history teacher Dr. David Rapaport said. “She’s a national champion at her sport yet she is still a very well-liked, hard working student. She is a student athlete and that is a great accomplishment.”

However, Rapaport does express the plights faced when dealing with an athlete who plays at such a high competitiveness.

“It is difficult because she has to make up work, and she has other classes besides social studies,” Rapaport said. “Being aware of her opportunity to express herself in this sport, it would be folly to impede or get in the way of this skill and so the staff has to work very hard to understand the demands of someone who is working at this high of a level.”

Through her strong support system, notwithstanding her obstacles, and drive to become the foremost player she can be, Lily feels that more than half of table tennis is mental game and confidence, and that during rough times, having a substantial foundation from others and faith in one’s self is key to success.

As she learned to continue pursuing her dreams through adversity, she must also look to the future for her career. Even though school and table tennis can be hard to manage, Lily is certain she wants to continue playing professional table tennis after high school. She has a strong desire to attend college while pursuing her career as a table tennis player and possibly playing for a small college team. However, since education is one of her top priorities, she is unsure how she will handle table tennis and a rigorous college workload.

Ideally, Lily would like to stay somewhere in California to be closer to home. If she were to attend college further away from home, it would be difficult to adapt to a new environment.

“If I go to college, lets say on the East Coast, then I won’t have the same coaches or club,” Lily said. “I’m hoping I can go to a school nearby so I can continue going to the same team.”

If she does decide to leave for the East Coast for college, traveling far from home is not out of the ordinary for her. Although people might expect traveling to be one of the superlative aspects of her career, presenting once in a lifetime experiences, she admits it is often hard to be away from home for long periods of time.

“Although I do love seeing new places and meeting players from all over, sometimes I just want to be home with my family and friends,” Lily said.

Needless to say, Zhang’s life as a serious student-athlete requires many sacrifices and a deep commitment. Although she may miss out on many classic “teenage” experiences, nothing will stop her from pursuing her dream. Despite her early success, she is not satisfied and still has many long and short-term goals for the road ahead; chief among them is to represent the United States once again at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other short-term goals for this year include traveling the world to compete in over 10 major tournaments.

Evidently, Lily lives a life that falls far from the teenage norm. However, she has a unique opportunity to experience things most high school students can only dream of. Despite all the difficulties she has faced becoming one of the best table tennis players in the world, she feels it has shaped her into the person she is today.

“I think the important thing is to always keep trying,” Lily said. “Just go back and practice and use those experiences to work on your mistakes.” <<<