PARIS: Japanese volleyball player Ran Takahashi will likely be a key pillar of the country’s national men’s team in the 2028 Olympics, when it seeks revenge for its narrow defeat in a quarterfinal match at the Paris Games.

Japan lost to Italy 3-2 on Monday to end its bid to win the first gold medal in 52 years. Takahashi, 22, supported the team in both offense and defense alongside team captain Yuki Ishikawa.

As a student at Higashiyama High School in Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, Takahashi frequently heard from his volleyball coach Rio Matsunaga, 42, who had coached Ishikawa as a student at Chuo University, about the kind of practice Ishikawa had engaged in.

Takahashi won the national high school championship as the team ace, and was picked for the Japanese national team roster in 2020, the year he entered Nippon Sport Science University. “He had said from the moment he joined the national team that he would ‘surpass Yuki (Ishikawa)-san,'” Matsunaga recounted.

Adept at serve receptions, the rising star was praised by Nippon Sport Science University volleyball coach Kenji Yamamoto, a former libero for the national team, as having “a unique knack” for the sport.

His defense skills earned him a key spot on the national team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, at which Japan finished a quarterfinalist.

In order to attain better results at Paris, Takahashi began playing in the first division of the Italian professional volleyball league from the 2021-2022 season.

“It all began when (Team Japan) coach (Philippe) Blain asked me if I wanted to take on a challenge,” Takahashi said. He improved his attacking skills against high blocks and helped his team Vero Volley Monza to become league championship finalists in the 2023-2024 season.

Takahashi left Team Japan in the middle of this year’s Volleyball Nations League, held right before the Paris Games, due to a sprained left ankle, but returned in time for the Olympics. He appeared in all four matches including the preliminary round games almost in full.

Japan suffered a comeback defeat in the quarterfinal game despite having many match point opportunities, and Takahashi later pledged that he would become a player who can secure victories in such situations.

Many of the key players on the national team roster, including Ishikawa, are around the age of 30, meaning that the makeup of the team could change drastically by the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

“We must make further preparations so that we can win on this stage next time,” Takahashi said.

JIJI Press