Hugo Hoyama

Hugo Hoyama (born May 9, 1969) is a retired Brazilian table tennis player of Japanese origin who has won several medals in single, double and team events in the Pan American Games and in the Latin American Championships. He competed in six editions of the Olympic Games in his career, between Barcelona 1992 and London 2012, and seven Pan American Games, from Indianapolis 1987 to Guadalajara 2011. Along with Gustavo Tsuboi and Thiago Monteiro, Hoyama was part of the winning team at the 2007 Pan American Games and 2011 Pan American Games.

Career

Born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, Hoyama broke the Brazilian record of most gold medals in the Pan American Games, which used to belong to the Brazilian swimmer Gustavo Borges and participated in every Olympic game since debuting as an Olympian at the 1992 Olympic Games and competed in the 2012 Olympic Games, where he plans to retire as an Olympian.

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, reaching the round of 16 and finishing in ninth place in the competition, beating world champion Jorgen Persson of Sweden along the way, Hoyama posted the best result in Brazilian tennis table history at the Olympics. He was only surpassed in 2020 by Hugo Calderano, who reached the quarterfinals.

In 2007, Hoyama was invited by Carlos Nuzman from the Brazilian Olympic Committee to be the flag bearer for Brazil at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara. According to Nuzman, the choice of Hoyama displays support from the committee to all sports that Brazilians play.

Hugo is the founder of the Hugo Hoyama Foundation. Other than his native Portuguese, Hoyama also speaks English, his heritage language of Japanese and Spanish.