Tokyo, October 18, 2006: Two of Japan’s most famous sports stars are supporting the 2006 FIVB World Championships in their home country.
Two-time Olympic judo champion Ryoko Tani and two-time World Cup soccer captain Tsuneyasu Miyamoto have both contributed messages to the World Championships’ official souvenir programme.
Tani, formerly known as Ryoko Tamura, won the women’s under-48 kilogram gold medal at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Now aged 31, “Yawara-chan” also won the silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and at Atlanta four years later.
“Volleyball is a team sport and a wonderful court sport in which trust and confidence in fellow teammates are crucial,” she says in her message.
“In volleyball, unlike in a one-on-one challenge as in judo, only the team’s solidarity and the trust players place in each other can produce the kind of inspiring team play which I feel is the most appealing aspect of the game.”
Miyamoto, who led Japan at the 2002 World Cup on home soil and at the 2006 World Cup in Germany this summer, admits to being a big volleyball fan since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He even played volleyball during his junior high school days, but just for fun.
“I am impressed with the dynamic movement, the amazing jump serves and attacks, and the incredible reception and defence of volleyball,” says Miyamoto, the 29-year-old Gamba Osaka defender.
“As an athlete in a different sport I learned a lot from volleyball, especially about never giving up and chasing the ball right to the end.”
Miyamoto even reveals his favourite all-time Japanese volleyball player ? but fans must buy the programme to find out!
The 180-page World Championships souvenir programme is being published by Nippon Bunka Shupan and will be on sale for 1,500 yen.
