Lily Zhang is the first table tennis player to qualify for the U.S. team for the Paris Games, where she can become the first American in her sport to compete in four Olympics.
Zhang, a 27-year-old from California, qualified as the highest-ranked American woman in the top 50 of the International Table Tennis Federation rankings. She is 35th, three spots ahead of Amy Wang.
USA Table Tennis confirmed Zhang’s qualification on Thursday.
Zhang made her first national team at 12, debuted at the Olympics in 2012 at age 16 and lost in the round of 32 at the Rio and Tokyo Games.
She is currently tied with Jun Gao and David Zhuang for the U.S. record of three Olympic table tennis appearances, according to the OlyMADMen.
The U.S. has not won an Olympic medal in table tennis, which debuted at the Games in 1988.
USA Table Tennis has Olympic Trials from March 19-31 in West Monroe, Louisiana. There, two more women will make the team, and more Americans will earn spots to compete at international events later this spring, where they can qualify for the Olympics.
