Gao's plans to never play again tabled

BEIJING -- The long road back began in Rio de Janeiro, where Gao Jun earned her return ticket by winning the gold medal in women's table tennis at the recent Pan American Games. Last week, she was back in the city where she first became an Olympian, getting a glimpse of her old world reborn.

"When I was competing for China, I was hoping one day China would get the Olympic Games," says Gao, who'll be 39 when she competes in her fourth Games. "Now, my dream came true."

Playing in these Games, though, seemed a distant fantasy when Gao left her life here and went to America in 1993. When she won the silver medal in doubles in 1992 at Barcelona, Gao was already near the end of her career at 23. "I was the oldest on the team," she says. "I see I should retire."

So she married Frank Chang, a Taiwan-born American whom she'd met during a tournament in Las Vegas, moved to Maryland, and took a job with a satellite communications company. After playing the game daily for two decades, Gao was ready for an empty-handed life.

"I said, 'OK, my table tennis is over,' " says Gao, who was here as part of a US Olympic Committee good-will tour. "I spent most of my life with one thing and I was kind of sick of it. Take it away. Leave the racquet."

It was three years before Gao picked it up again. After playing for the world's best team, the idea of knocking a ball around for amusement struck her as silly. "I didn't want to do it as a hobby," she says. "In America, this is a basement sport. For me, that was no fun at all."

When the US federation called, hoping Gao could help beat nemesis Canada at the 1999 Pan Ams in Winnipeg, it rekindled her competitive fire. "You miss the things you had before," she says.

Even with a dusty paddle, Gao was still the best player in America. All she needed was a waiver from the Chinese, who weren't worried about one of their old girls coming back to haunt them. "They just gave it to me," says Gao, who won the gold medal in Winnipeg. "For them, I'm not too dangerous."

Gao figured it would be just a curtain call. A second trip to Olympus in 2000, then a final farewell. "After Sydney I said, 'OK, I'm done,' " recalls Gao, who made US history there by advancing past the first round. "But life changed."

In 2001, Beijing was awarded the Games for 2008. A year later, Gao got divorced. The combination made her decision easy -- stay in the sport and move back to her native land, where she could get world-class training again. "I said, 'OK, hang on,' " Gao says.

The country she came back to wasn't the one she left. China was booming, with skyscrapers going up, roads crowded with cars, and a growing middle class hungry for consumer goods. And Gao had become a trans-Pacific woman, comfortable in two cultures.

The woman who'd arrived in the States with barely a mouthful of English ("None at all, just A-B-C-D.") had become fluent. "People ask me, 'Are you Chinese?' " Gao says. "I say, 'I'm Chinese, but I play for the US.' "

What was more puzzling was that Gao still was playing at all. All of her Chinese teammates long since had retired. Deng Yaping, who won two gold medals in both Barcelona and Atlanta, now works for the Beijing organizing committee. "Many of my friends say, 'You're still playing? You still compete?' " Gao says. "I say, 'Yeah, yeah, I'm lucky.' "

Her trans-Pacific status has worked nicely. Gao graduated from Shanghai University two years ago with a degree in economics and trade. Now, she's studying economic trade at East China University of Science and Technology, where she plays for the school's club team.

Gao's $1,500 monthly stipend from the USOC covers her apartment and other expenses, and she'll make extra cash playing for a German club next winter. "I don't make a lot, but it's enough," she says. "In China, everything is cheap. It's still OK for me to hang out here."

When she came up through the Chinese system, everything was taken care of. After Gao's father sent her at 5 to a special school in Baoding, a two-hour drive from here, she came up through the pipeline, making the city and provincial teams before being tapped for the national squad in 1985 at 16.

Once she made it to the Olympics, Gao figured she'd make the podium. "Chinese table tennis is No. 1 in the world," says Gao, whose teammates won three of four golds in Barcelona and swept the women's events. "If you can play for the team, for sure you have a chance to get a medal."

Getting one here next year would be an astounding breakthrough. The Americans may have climbed out of the basement, but they've still never come close to making the podium at the Games. "Table tennis is not a popular sport in the US," Gao acknowledges. "Hopefully, by winning a medal, I can put it on the map."

The form sheet says it's a long shot. Gao, who went out after one match in Athens in 2004, is ranked 15th in the world. The top five all are Chinese.

"I think I could have a chance to win a medal, but it is hard," she concedes. "For my age, it's not easy. It all depends on the draw."

Since only two Chinese players qualify for the Games, though, Gao has a legitimate shot to make the quarterfinals. That still would be by far the best American effort. Gao already has beaten the odds just earning a fourth bid. She might have gotten it anyway next year, based on her global ranking. But it made sense to get the job done in Rio, where Gao defeated former countrywoman Wu Xue of the Dominican Republic for the title.

The toughest part of the Pan Ams might have been getting from there to here, which Gao did in one bum-numbing multihop trip.

"One hour from Rio to Sao Paulo," she says. "Ten and a half hours to Chicago and a five-hour wait. Fourteen hours to Shanghai. There was a two-hour delay because the Beijing airport was shut down by bad weather. So we stopped at Jinan and got here at 3 a.m. I didn't count how many hours."

Her journey back has been measured not in hours, but in years. And if the Lords of the Rings had picked Toronto when they made their 2008 choice six years ago, Gao would have been long gone. "If the Olympics are not in Beijing," she says, "I'm not playing anymore."

These Games are about a homecoming for a woman who lived in this town for eight years but now comfortably can stand astride an ocean.

"I am very proud to play for America and of course, I was proud to play for China," Gao says. "I am open to both and I am happy to be where I am right now."

John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.