Recently I wrote that the United States Olympic team has 33 athletes who were born overseas. One of those is Gao Jun who was born in China and started playing table tennis when she was just 5 years old.

“In the mornings we studied, then we practiced, then dinner, homework and practice again. We didn’t have too much time to do anything else,” Gao said.

“For the first few days I was missing my home very much but after a week it was okay. It’s good for the young kids to go. We have a lot of good competition that can make the level go up.”

She left China in 1994 and got married to an American but was later divorced.

Read more: China table tennis medal winner Gao now playing for USA