Birthplace: Baoding, Hebei, China
Hometown: Covina, CA
Club: Gao Jun Table Tennis Club
Number of Active Years Coaching: 8 years

Coaches Stations: Head Coach
Sponsors: Butterfly and NYAC

PERSONAL

Jun Gao started playing table tennis when she was five. Her father was a table tennis fan, so he sent her to one of the best athletic schools in China. She thanks her father for this, saying without him, she wouldn't have had her table tennis career. In China, athletic schools are special schools for training future professional athletes. Students in Gao's school majored in different fields, including table tennis, gymnastics, and martial arts. Her school was a boarding school. Every day, after academic classes, she would train for several hours. Her first lesson in table tennis was to learn how to use a paddle to bounce the ball against the wall without letting the ball drop. It was a great exercise for steadiness and control.

After that, she went on to tables to play, and older students would practice with younger students. Later on, she began competing with other athletic schools in the same province. After winning a silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games for her native country China, Gao has since become a U.S. citizen and was US National Champion in Women's Singles and Doubles on numerous occasions, as well as the 1994 US Open Champion. Gao has studied economic trade at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. She likes love songs, 007 and Batman movies and to reminisce about her father taking her to table tennis school as a child in China.

Coaching Record:

2017 PanAm Junior Championships Girls’ Coach

2016 World Junior Championships Girls' Coach

Coaching Achievements:
- Erica Wu to London 2012 Olympics
- Grace Yang US National Cadet and Junior Teams
- Rachel Yang 2015 US Open U-13 Champion and Cadet National Team

Most memorable career experience: "I played tournaments around the world for many years, and interesting stories happened almost everywhere. But my most memorable time was when Chen Zihe and I defeated Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong in the 1991 World Championships. That was quite exciting, because we had never defeated Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong before."

Greatest influences: Her father and her family

Hobbies: "I like reading, watching movies, watching TV, and singing. Of course, I like shopping, too."

Darryl Tsao

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