“Jeopardy!” champion Jamie Ding’s sister says his success shows that you can come from anywhere and find success in the U.S.
Ding has won 30 straight “Jeopardy!” games, amassing more than $849,000 in winnings and and is fifth all-time in victories, as of April 23. He’s set to compete again on Friday, April 24.
“What that means for us and for immigrant families, it’s really cool to see, like, the idea that my parents can immigrate here from China and then their son can go on, and this is a very American show, and he can go on and carve out a piece of history for himself,” Ding’s sister, Jessie Ding, said.
Now living in New Jersey, Jamie Ding is the Grosse Pointe Shores-raised son of immigrants from Beijing, China. He’s currently No. 5 on “Jeopardy!’s” Leaderboard of Legends — the only person of color in the top 10, younger sister Jessie Ding, a Grosse Pointe Shores-based attorney, noted.
Jamie Ding was born in Canberra, Australia, and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. His parents are Yuchuan Ding, a professor of neuroscience at Wayne State University, and Ning Yan, a retired mathematics teacher who taught at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School.
Ding’s parents and sister recently traveled to the “Jeopardy!” set in Los Angeles to watch Jamie Ding compete during his long run, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the popular game show.
While watching “Jeopardy!” wasn’t a common pastime in the Ding household, Jamie Ding demonstrated a hunger for knowledge from a young age, Jessie Ding said.
“He honestly just likes to read a lot and he just has a natural curiosity,” she said.
His interests led Jamie Ding to compete twice in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and National Geographic Bee, and MATHCOUNTS National Competition, while a student at Parcells Middle School in Grosse Pointe Woods. While competing at the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C., in 2004, Ding was pictured with former “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, WSU recently said.
While a high school student, Jamie Ding auditioned for the “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament in Chicago, with his family accompanying him.
He graduated from Grosse Pointe North High School in 2009 and moved to New Jersey to attend Princeton University, earning his degree in 2013.
Jamie Ding is currently an employee of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and a part-time law student.
Jessie Ding did not expect her brother to end up on the “Jeopardy!” stage this season.
“I had no idea that he was still interested until he called us in January to say that he was going on,” she said.
To lighten things up outside of trivia, siblings Jamie and Jessie Ding run an Instagram account, @attorneygeneraltsos, which Jessie Ding mostly maintains, giving their takes on General Tso’s chicken dishes at Chinese restaurants across the U.S. Jamie Ding was the mastermind behind the profile name, Jessie Ding said.
As Jamie Ding continues his historic “Jeopardy!” run, Jessie Ding reflected on her brother’s success.
“I’m very, very proud, our entire family is very proud of him,” she said. “It’s been incredible and surreal and we’ve always known how smart he was, but he’s not going to show off, so Jeopardy was the perfect environment for him where he could flex what he knows and now the entire country can see it.”
Contact Jenna Prestininzi: jprestininzi@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ‘Jeopardy!’ champ’s family pride. What his sister’s saying
Reporting by Jenna Prestininzi, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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