Lead:
Nayomi Shimoto: As a professional athlete, I hope that I can be more powerful, and I have always wanted to change the image of this sport in people's minds as "table tennis = niche + dull", table tennis can also be so sexy, and I hope that table tennis is a more popular sport.
Body:
In 2009, Naomi Yotsumoto was officially expelled by the Japan Table Tennis Association and banned for life.
The reason is that Nami Shimoto usually plays table tennis games with a variety of styles that are too alternative, refusing to wear team uniforms, "clothes do not cover the body".
There has always been no shortage of beautiful women in the world's women's table tennis team, and there are many very beautiful looking players in Asian women's table tennis, such as Liu Shiwen and Chen Meng of National Table Tennis, Xu Xiaoyuan of the Korean team, Miyu Hirano of the Japanese team, Hina Hayata and Yoshijun Ishikawa.
Of course, there is also such a female table tennis player in the Japanese table tennis world, with a beautiful appearance and a bumping face.
She is Shimoto Nayomi. In Japan, it is at the second-tier level, and there is a gap with the main team of the national team, but it is also good.
But Shiyuan Nayomi is naturally beautiful and charming, and is the table tennis player with the most photo albums on the Internet.
She once joined the Beijing Table Tennis Club team in China and participated in the 2004 China Table Tennis Club Super League.
Fans in Beijing should be more familiar with Shiyuan Nasumi.
Because in 2004, Siyuan once passed the entrance examination of the Beijing team and followed the Beijing team led by Zhang Yining to compete in the table super, becoming the second Japanese athlete to join the table super after Xiaoxi Xing (who joined Shanxi Jinyuan in 2001), and earlier than Ai Fukuhara.
Although she barely got a chance to play, the news that she joined the table super itself still made an impression.
As everyone knows, the Japanese nation has a characteristic: it commits middle school two from time to time.
What a strange island, rich in strange and psychotic artists.
Bald tug-of-war, women's body feast, a hair art, otaku, idiot, AV, sailor suit... These interesting and familiar words are all reminiscent of a country, Japan.
"Ichihatsu" refers to a special artistic performance that is popular in many Japanese companies. Whenever a newcomer enters the company, the company's leaders always like to let the newcomer have a "one-haired" performance: the newcomer takes off the outer pants, wears only underwear, and dances the twisted ass.
In such a country, the so-called "fancy dress" of athletes led to a lifetime ban at that time.
Back to the point,
In fact, Nayomi Shimoto is not only a table tennis player, she is also a very thoughtful costume designer, but he only designs competition clothes for himself and his teammates.
The following interview is an excerpt and translation of some of her confessions in interviews with mainstream Japanese media for the reader's benefit.
Reporter: How did you get involved with table tennis?
Naomi Shimoto: I've been playing table tennis since I was 4 years old, but when I got to middle school, when people heard that you were from the table tennis club, they thought you must be boring, so I sometimes lied that I was from the swimming club (laughs).
Reporter: Since when did you start wearing a "special" jersey before the game?
Shimoto Nayomi: Table tennis is still a stereotypical sport in people's minds, and among athletes, many girls appear without makeup during competitions, and the clothing is also competition-specific, so it is impossible to dress yourself on the field!
For example, golf, tennis, etc., game clothes are still relatively beautiful.
Reporter: Everyone has a heart for beauty, especially girls, and they are even more obsessed with beauty.
Nayomi Shimoto: I've always wanted to change the image of this sport as "table tennis = niche + dull" in people's minds, but each school has its own uniform, and it can't be special.
But the pros who represent themselves can choose their own jerseys, but I went around the market and couldn't find the right one, so I decided to design my own jersey.
For me, the costume is the stage for expression, just like a singer will melt his mood into the lyrics. As a professional athlete, I put my emotions on my jersey.
I always decide on the theme of the jersey about a month before the tournament, because only then am I able to grasp what kind of mood I will be on the field.
As a professional athlete, I want to be more powerful and I want table tennis to be more popular.
Reporter: When you became a professional athlete, what was your life like?
Nayomi Shimoto: First of all, I didn't know anything about it at the time.
Later, I learned that professional athletes first need sponsorship, and they need to pull it themselves,
I can only hold a thick yellow page and call the switchboard of various enterprises one by one,
The first opening sentence is: I play table tennis (laughs).
Looking back now, I was really grateful that I could do such a thing at that time, but I was really anxious at that time, and I didn't think much about it.
Of course, the other party coldly refused with "we do not sponsorship".
When sponsorship is not found, I have to work part-time and compete at the same time.
Training in the public gymnasium usually costs 200-400 yen (10-20 yuan) for an hour.
Sometimes on weekends and holidays, you still need to queue up.
At this time, I hope that I will not promote table tennis, because the promotion will be promoted, and my training venue will be promoted (laughs).
I was training in line until 2009.
Reporter: So what do you usually wear when you compete? Will you feel uncomfortable?
Nasumi Shimoto: Athletes generally don't wear high heels, boots, etc., because they are prone to sprains, and they usually wear more sneakers, so my style of dressing is still mainly casual.
I like bright and bright colors the most, and I used to wear green, pink and other colors to the streets.
Don't feel uncomfortable.
Instead, I feel that being full of color makes my mood more comfortable.
I also look for colors that pedestrians don't often wear on the street to predict the next trendy colors.
If after a while you find that you guessed wrong, comfort yourself: "It's popular in my heart anyway."
If someone says to me, "This is the trend right now, you should do it." ”
In my heart, I never look at things with stereotypes.
Reporter: What kind of state do you usually have when you train? What is the goal of the game?
Nayomi Shimoto: For me, table tennis is what drives my growth.
For example, during university training, it is common to practice until two or three o'clock in the morning the next day, and the brain is blank.
But you don't always get good results, even in Japan.
How to overcome the mood when the effort is not proportional to the return, how to face the other self in my heart, table tennis has taught me a lot.
Since I started the sport at the age of 4, I have never thought of giving up.
Probably because no one forced me, it was only because of my own interests that I continued to do the sport.
Along the way, I was very lucky that the excellent environment and excellent teachers surrounded me.
My biggest goal is to win a national championship, regardless of which sport of table tennis.
Reporter: Many people think that "you spend all your time on clothes to lose", what is your comment on this?
Nayomi Shimoto: I wonder why you asked me such a question.
Even if you have to lose in the end anyway, it is better to lose in the clothes you want to wear, and the mood is better, and it won't be long before everyone wants to wear such a jersey.
The current evaluation only represents the current stage, and I believe that there will always be people who will recognize it in the future.
What I have done will certainly not be in vain.
No matter what, once you give up, it is over at that moment, and faith can become strength.
Faith is what I value the most.
All along, I have come to this day step by step with faith.
When my life was difficult, someone invited me to join the industrial group (enterprise team).
But if I join in on that, it would be a compromise to myself.
Epilogue:
Shimoto Nayomi is an alternative player in the Japanese table tennis scene, and her fashion style is always the focus of the competition.
Naomi Shimoto's almost every competition is dressed in a costume of her own design, turning the course into a fashion show, and she is not only the athlete with the most costumes in the world, but also the athlete who takes the most photos.
Shimoto Nayomi is the table tennis player with the most photo albums on the Internet and has always been regarded as a "ping pong vase".
Obviously, her high popularity does not depend entirely on ball skills, and the most striking of the four elements that often appear in the fashion show business is the "fancy dress" in the game.
Nayomi Shigen, who does not admit defeat in competitive competitions
At the 2008 All Japan Table Tennis Championships, Nami Shimoto won the mixed doubles competition with her partner Watanabe all the way to defeat Kumada/Miho in the 1/4 final, and won the famous Yasusuke Sakamoto/Ai Fukuhara in the semifinals.
Unfortunately, the four-element Nayomi combination did not win the gold medal, but the runner-up was also a good result,
This also made her somewhat make up for the regret of the women's singles.
In the women's singles, Naomi Shimoto, won all the way to the fourth round,
However, due to an Achilles tendon injury, she had to withdraw from the competition, and now she can only use a wheelchair for rehabilitation, which is estimated to last 4 weeks.
Even if she won the runner-up of the tournament, Naomi Shimoto still couldn't get the position of the main player in the Japanese team,
As for the simple reason, she refused to wear a team uniform, she had to wear her own clothes to play, and she had to wear makeup before the game to play.
And she herself said in an interview: "Don't say it's a game, even if I want to go to the battlefield, I want to show the most beautiful side to my opponent."
But because of this, Shigen Naomi has been banned from Japan since 2009 for the reason of "not covering his body".
However, the ITTF did not ignore the existence of such a personality player,
During the Women's Table Tennis World Cup in Chengdu in 2009, the ITTF held a women's athlete skirt display to tentatively warm up the reform of women's athletes' clothing, and the four-element design was among them, and she herself was personally present as a model to show these bold and elegant designs, although petite, but compared with those professional models, her stage experience is not inferior.
Such solidarity and affirmation greatly encouraged Nayomi Shimoto's self-confidence.
In 2013, Nasumi Shimoto competed in the All Japan Championship, and her heavy makeup still attracts attention.
Even if the competition results are not good, it is "famous for eternity" by dressing up.
Nayomi Shimoto has now shifted her professional focus from playing to acting and costume design, although she can't personally show her personality design at the table of the World Series.
But Shiyuan hopes that one day other golfers will appear on the world stage wearing the clothes she designed, after all, such a distinctive outfit can "make table tennis brighter and livelier."