On October 24, Japan's table tennis Olympic champion Hayabusa Mizutani officially announced his retirement, completely ending his career as an athlete. Prior to that, Mizutani Hayabusa had left the national team, but had recently played in the business league. This time, however, he decided to leave the arena altogether, and an era in the Japanese men's table tennis world finally came to an end.
After The retirement of Hayabusa Mizutani, Japanese world champion Yoshinori Ishikawa posted at the first time, praising him as a "gentle predecessor and legend". And the Chinese players never had the opportunity to play against this fierce opponent on the field, which is a pity!
Born in 1989, Mizutani Hayabusa is a legendary player in the history of Japanese table tennis and one of the difficult opponents that the national table tennis has encountered. As early as 2005, Mizutani Hayabusa had already emerged in the table tennis arena, defeating world champions such as Wang Hao, and he was only 16 years old at the time.
In the following ten years, Mizutani Hayabusa continued to challenge the national table tennis in three major competitions (Olympic Games, World Table Tennis Championships, and World Cup), which caused us great trouble, but in general, it was still more than wins. However, in the Olympic Games, Mizutani Falcon broke through the Chinese team's defense line twice, especially the second time we paid a terrible price.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Mizutani Hayabusa became the only foreign association athlete to defeat the national table tennis players, saving the match point and reversing Xu Xin in the men's team final; at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, Mizutani Hayabusa ushered in the peak of his career, and together with Ito Mishimachi, he reversed Xu Xin/Liu Shiwen 4-3 to win the first mixed doubles gold medal in Olympic history!
However, after the boy band won the bronze, Mizutani Hayabusa officially decided to retire from the Japanese national team, because his eye disease was difficult to cure, so he was forced to choose to give up. But even so, he still did not terminate his contract with the T-League, appearing on the field on October 23 and 24.
But after teaming up with Mr. Chang to beat his doubles opponent on Oct. 24, Hayabusa Mizutani finally announced his retirement altogether — it looks like he wants to end his career with a win that would have been earlier if he hadn't lost yesterday.
At present, the Japanese table tennis team has begun to lay out the layout of the Paris Olympic Games, Zhang Benzhi and /Hayata Hina have become potential mixed doubles ace pairs, and Ito Hasho has completely abandoned the project and began to specialize in women's singles and women's doubles. So can these juniors inherit the fighting spirit of Mizutani Falcon and continue to impact the success of the Chinese team on the field?
Let's wait for the World Table Tennis Championships in Houston in November!