Amber Liu. Credit: Sergio Solorzano “My hardest competition was the US National Table Tennis Championships in 2023 when I was 15. I needed to reach the semifinals to make the national team for the world championships the next year. After a long fight, I placed first in the under-15 girls’ singles event. It was a lot of pressure because it’s what I had been working for the whole year. It’s also single elimination, so if you lose, you’re out. Winning required a lot of mental and emotional strength