The 2024 Summer Olympics open this coming Friday night in Paris, and once again, Lowell will have a rooting interest.

Jennie Gai will compete in the Badminton Mixed Doubles competition with her partner, Vinson Chiu. The teammates captured Silver Medals at the2023 and 2024 Pan Am Games Individual Championships.

In 2018, Gai became the first and only American Badminton player to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games since 2010, finishing as a quarter-finalists in Girls’ Singles and winning gold in the team event.

Gai’s Facebook and Team USA pages list her place of birth as Lowell, MA.

The 23-year old currently lives in California and attended Junior High and High School in Freemont, before graduating from University of California Berkeley in 2022.

While we have been unable to determine exactly when Gai’s family moved to the west coast, her bio describes her beginning to play the sport in California at the age of eight.

Gai and Chiu play their first match Saturday July 27th.