EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympian Ariel Hsing On Playing Table Tennis With Billionaire Warren Buffett

U.S. Olympic table tennis star Ariel Hsing, 16, who recently won her first two matches of table tennis before narrowly losing to the Olympics’ second seed, China’s Li Xiaoxia, 24, is ranked the best under-18 player in America, and has the tenacity to go against competitors far more advanced than she.

Before Hsing proved that she could hold her own with players like Xiaoxia, she sat down exclusively with Uinterview to talk about her dedication to table tennis, which goes back to before she was 9 years old, when she played the game with none other than billionaire and amateur ping-pong enthusiast Warren Buffet, 81, whom she affectionately refers to as “uncle.”

“It was Uncle Warren’s 75th birthday party,” she told us, “and one of his friends decided as a birthday present to give him a table tennis lesson from a coach, and the coach thought it would be funny if there was a little girl also there and I was that little girl.”

The two struck up a friendship, such that Buffett later expressed his support of Hsing, declaring that “the only way I could have beaten her would have been if someone was holding her down,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Check out Uinterview’s exclusive with Ariel Hsing here:

For more on the 2012 London Olympics:

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EXCLUSIVE: Veteran U.S. Olympic Triathlete Hunter Kemper On Being ‘Persistent’

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympic Volleyball Player Lindsey Berg Is ‘Honored’ To Be Named Captain

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympian Nick McCrory Talks Diving With David Boudia

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympic Diver Kristian Ipsen Is ‘Not Wearing Much’

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympian Phil Dalhausser’s ‘Late Start’ At Beach Volleyball

EXCLUSIVE: Olympian Jessica Hardy Swims 2.5 Hours Every Morning

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympic Gymnast Jonathan Horton On The London Games

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympic Gymnast Jordyn Wieber On Trainin For London Games

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Olympic Sprinter Wallace Spearmon On Losing His Medal In Beijing — And Winning Gold In London

Lolo Jones Reveals She’s A Virgin

Daniel Craig To Open Olympics At Buckingham Palace