On January 27, Beijing time, the International Table Tennis Federation officially announced an important decision, that is, to appoint the 33-year-old legend of table tennis, Ai Fukuhara, as the first general manager of the Japan region of the WTT World Table Tennis Professional League.
It is reported that this decision was the result of the invitation of Liu Guoliang, chairman of the WTT World Table Tennis Federation Council, and Steve Denton, CEO of the ITTF Group, for which Ai Fukuhara himself was very honored, bluntly saying: "I will work hard for the players and contribute to meeting their most basic and urgent needs." ”
As we all know, Ai Fukuhara is a well-known player in Japan and even the world table tennis, who has won medals in the Olympic Games, the World Table Tennis Championships, and the World Cup for many times, and has a huge influence inside and outside the fan circle, is a veritable sports star, and still actively supports the cause of table tennis after retiring, and has been praised by many parties.
In addition, Fukuhara's motherland, Japan, has a very strong table tennis foundation, not only is it the first table tennis power in Asia, it has won the world championship many times, and its achievements in recent years are also very prominent, and the Tokyo Olympic Games even used the host privilege to add a new table tennis mixed doubles gold medal, making an important contribution to the development of the sport.
It is precisely because of the influence of Ai Fukuhara and the importance of the Japanese table tennis world that Liu Guoliang, Denton and others attach great importance to cooperating with them. For Chinese fans, this is not surprising, because although the above three people come from different countries (Denton is Australian), they can communicate with Chinese without any obstacles, which is really lucky!
For his new position, Ai Fukuhara also set many goals, bluntly saying that he would "support the players and the whole table tennis family from different aspects... I hope to make this sport more vibrant", and put forward the "player-centric" policy in order to provide more services and guarantees for table tennis players.
As a former table tennis star, Ai Fukuhara understands what athletes need better than most people; as a table tennis star who has always had great influence, Ai Fukuhara also knows better than most people what the table tennis market needs - let us wish her to continue to make new contributions in her new role and promote table tennis and reform to a new peak!
Come on, "Love Sauce"!