Wang brought a lot to table for her new team

BEIJING - Having grown up in Beijing, American ping-pong Olympian Wang Chen knows all about how stressful it is to compete in the sport China calls its own.

Of the eight women's quarterfinalists in Beijing, three are members of the Chinese team. The other five? All natives of China.

Wang played on the Chinese national team for five years, but after retiring from the team, she immigrated to the United States in 2000. In the US, she found a situation much different from that in Beijing.

"Representing the US, it's much more relaxed. It's not like China where you have to win the gold; it's a different mentality," said Wang, who became a US citizen in 2006. "The mentality is, we do the best we can. There's no pressure."

That didn't stop Wang from advancing to the quarterfinals - the best showing ever by an American - before getting eliminated yesterday by Singapore's Li Jia Wei, 15-13, 11-6, 12-10, 13-15, 11-4.

Returning to Beijing, Wang, 34, found the fans in her hometown as warm as ever.

"For so many people to be cheering for me, I felt like I was still a Chinese athlete. Everyone was pulling for me," she said.