Coach Grace Yun Peng
Coach Grace Yun Peng's story starts in a gymnastics hall in Guangxi, China — until a coach saw something and handed the ten-year-old a racquet. By fourteen she was on the Guangxi provincial team; by 1990 she had earned her place on the Chinese National Team. She coaches in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
Peng became a three-time Chinese national champion — twice in women's doubles, once in mixed — and tested herself against the world's best, from the 1993 World Championships and that year's East Asian Games to the 1994 All England. She won the French Open mixed doubles title in 1994. After moving to the United States in 2003 she opened a second chapter most players never get: winner of multiple USA national titles and a two-time US Open champion — women's doubles in 2005, mixed doubles in 2008 — still lifting international trophies in 2010.
She has coached in the San Gabriel Valley since the year she arrived, and in 2010 co-founded Star Badminton Academy in El Monte, where she is head coach. On any given evening you'll find her on court, feeding shuttles and correcting footwork one student at a time.
Star Badminton Academy stood among the club booths at the Keystone Sports Festival.