Ai Fukuhara

Nickname

The Tiger Woods of table tennis by the press or [more commonly] Ai-chan. (japantoday.com, 21 Oct 2004)

Hobbies

Listening to music, sending emails, cooking sleeping. (Japan NOC, 09 Oct 2006; ai-fukuhara.com, 19 Jan 2012)

Language(s) spoken

Japanese, Mandarin

Club name

ANA

Position and style

Attacking (tt-top12.de, 01 Aug 2004)

Handedness

Right (tt-top12.de, 01 Aug 2004)

Other sports

Her mother Chiyo was a well-renowned table tennis player in Japan. (Table Tennis University, 25 Mar 2008)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
She started playing table tennis at the age of three. (ITTF, 04 Oct 2001)

Reason for taking up this sport
Her mother Chiyo was a well-renowned table tennis player in Japan and her brother also played. (Japan NOC, 09 Oct 2006, Table Tennis University, 25 Mar2008)

Ambitions
To win a singles or doubles medal at the Olympic Games. (ensalon.com, 16 Oct 2006)

Training
She trains between four and five hours a day during the week and eight to nine hours a day at the weekends. (Lint, 28 Jun 2004)

Hero
Naoko Takahashi, Japan's gold medallist in the women's marathon at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. (Japan NOC, 09 Oct 2006)

Sporting philosophy / motto
"I used to cry when I lost. Now I let it all out once a month. The stress and exhaustion build up and everything I've been keeping inside just explodes. Sometimes I cry even when there is nothing particular to cry about." (Time Asia, 27 Feb 2003)

Awards
In 2007, she was named as a sports ambassador of goodwill between Japan and China. (Ai Fukuhara official site, 09 Nov 2007)

General
COLLECTION
On the final day of the International Table Tennis Federation [ITTF] Pro Tour event in Yokohama, Japan, she personally took a collection box into the audience to collect donations for the victims of the earthquake in China's southwestern Sichuan Province. "I have a lot of friends in that region," she said. (ittf.com, 04 Jun 2008)

CHILD PRODIGY
From the age of three she toured Japan with her mother, taking part in exhibition events and dominating tournaments against children older than her. She became a child celebrity from the day she could hold a bat and often appeared on television as a 'genius table tennis girl'. She would throw tantrums if she lost to grown-up studio guests and had a tendency to burst into tears, which made her a favourite among Japanese fans who nicknamed her 'Ai-chan', chan being a suffix reserved for children. She beat adult players at the Japanese National Championships while she was still at elementary school, turned pro at 10, was selected as Japan's youngest ever member of the national table tennis team at 11, made the quarterfinals of the National Championships at 13, the quarterfinals of the World Championships at 14 and the fourth round of the Olympic Games at 15. (Time Asia, 27 Feb 2003; Lint, 28 Jun 2004; ntv.co.jp, 09 Nov 2007)

VIDEO GAMES
She has appeared in two Japanese table tennis video games - Fukuhara Ai No Takkyu Icchokusen [Ai Fukuhara's Table Tennis] and Ikuze! Onsen Takkyu!! [Got to do! Hot Spring Table Tennis!!] - both for Playstation2. (Infostrada, 17 Sep 2006)

POLICE CHIEF
In October 2004, she was appointed honorary police chief of the Shinjuku district for a day. Wearing full police uniform she toured the Shinjuku district, spoke to senior citizens about the danger of telephone scams, played table tennis with some of her fans and hit autographed table tennis balls into the crowds. (japantoday.com, 21 Oct 2004)

NAME
In Japanese language, Ai simply means 'love'. (Table Tennis University, 25 Mar 2008)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008, Athens 2004