Japan's table tennis teen prodigy Matsushima Sora ready to step up after frustrating Paris 2024

One learns by watching, so the saying goes.

That’s exactly what Matsushima Sora did at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, where the young paddler was a reserve.

Matsushima, then 17, was fourth in the pecking order of Japanese men’s table tennis team, behind top-ranked Harimoto Tomokazu, Shinozuka Hiroto and Togami Shunsuke.

Even for a teenager who still had a lot to learn, it was not easy for Matsushima to swallow his pride and suck it up.

“I want to make sure I don’t forget the feeling,” Matsushima said during an interview with Olympics.com.

“I was with the team as an alternate for the Paris Olympics, which was a tricky position to be in to be honest. That said, I do think experiencing the Olympics and taking it all in was invaluable.

“Because of that, I’ve been able to use any frustration I had as motivation. It helped me win the All Japans, the (WTT) Contender Taiyuan.”

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