Tomokazu Harimoto

Japanese table tennis player who became the youngest ITTF World Tour winner at age 13 and reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4.

Tomokazu Harimoto plays for Japan with a Chinese mother who was herself a table tennis player, which means the sport that dominates the country he's spent his career trying to beat is also, in a real sense, part of his own household. He became the youngest ITTF World Tour event winner in history at 13, a record that immediately marked him as the player Japan was building its program around long before he'd finished school. His mixed technical background -- trained partly on his mother's Chinese-style fundamentals, partly within Japan's own development system -- shows up most clearly in a playing style that borrows from both schools rather than fitting neatly into either. Harimoto reached a career-high world ranking of No. 4 while still a teenager, a height most players don't approach until their mid-twenties, and has spent the years since defending that early promise against a Chinese program that treats every non-Chinese contender, however talented, as a problem to be solved rather than a rival to be respected.

Aggressive forehand-dominant attacking style with exceptional speed

Revolutionized Japanese table tennis and inspired young players globally

• ITTF World Tour Grand Finals Men's Singles Champion 2018
• Asian Cup Men's Singles Champion 2018
• WTT Contender Budapest Men's Singles Champion 2021
• Olympic Team Bronze Medal Tokyo 2020
• World Table Tennis Championships Men's Team Silver Medal 2018
• Asian Games Men's Team Gold Medal 2018
• Asian Championships Men's Singles Champion 2019
• ITTF World Tour German Open Men's Singles Champion 2017
• ITTF World Tour Austrian Open Men's Singles Champion 2018
• WTT Star Contender Doha Men's Singles Champion 2021
• Japan Table Tennis Championships Men's Singles Champion 2019