(born 23 February 1993) is a Japanese

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player. A regular member of the Japanese national team, she won a silver medal at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, a bronze at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

, and a silver medal at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, in Women's team. She is a left-handed inverted rubber shakehand player who primarily uses speedy top-spins and loops in offensive play.

Biography

Kasumi Ishikawa's entire family, which consists of her father, mother, and younger sister, play or used to play competitive table tennis. She has a younger sister, Rira, who was also a professional table tennis player, while her mother Kumi Ishikawa is her current coach. Upon graduation from Hirakawa Primary School in Yamaguchi, Ishikawa wrote in the yearbook of her dream to play in the Olympics. She first got public attention when she managed to defeat high school and even university students much older than her in her first ever All Japan Table Tennis Championships. Since 2007, she has won the All Japan Table Tennis Championships – female junior division; four years in a row. She was also nicknamed Ai-Chan II, a comparison to fellow athlete

Ai Fukuhara is a retired Japanese table tennis player and Olympic medalist, winning silver at the 2012 Summer Olympics and bronze at the 2016 Summer Olympics with the Japanese women's team. She is sponsored by All Nippon Airways. Table tennis career Fuk ...

, who also started playing table tennis at a young age. She models her underspin serve after Fukuhara. Her talent for table tennis was due partly to her parents, both former players, who gave Ishikawa special training since she was young. Her mother, Kumi Ishikawa, had played at the national level. In the autumn of her first year of primary school, a special practice area in their house was erected to help her train more rigorously. After graduating from primary school, Ishikawa decided to live away from home and devote herself to table tennis. She entered Shitennoji Habikigaoka Middle School, and then Shitennoji High School in

Osaka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture ...

. She practiced with all-Japan-Class players until late at night including holidays. Her aggressive attacking style coupled with formidable speed were developed there. She began working towards the Olympics and played in international tournaments representing her club; ZEN-NOH, Japan. She competed at the 2009 World Table Tennis Championships, reaching the quarter final of the singles competition. In 2011, she won the national singles title at the age of 17. She quickly rose through the world rankings in recent years and managed to secure a place to compete at the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. She is currently ranked 6th in the ITTF women's world ranking as of July 2012 but has achieved ranking as high as 5th. She is now the best female table tennis player in Japan after managing to overtake Ai Fukuhara in rankings. She reached the semi-finals of the Women's Singles at the

but lost out to eventual

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

winner;

Li Xiaoxia Li Xiaoxia (; born 16 January 1988) is a Chinese table tennis Grand Slam champion. Career She trained in the Jiangsu Wuxi Shanhe Club in Wuxi, China. Her trainer is Li Sun, who is also the mentor of Olympic gold medal winner Zhang Yining. As o ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

play-off, she lost out to

Feng Tianwei Feng Tianwei (, ) is a Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Harbin, China, she permanently moved to Singapore at the age of 20 under the former Foreign Sports Talent Scheme in March 2007 and commenced her international career in competit ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. She finished an overall 4th position. This was her first ever Olympics participation and despite her young age of 19, she was seeded no. 4 at the Women's Singles Event. She is also the first ever Japanese to have reached the semi-finals of the tournament. At the Women's Team Event semi-finals, Kasumi Ishikawa helped Japan to overcome Singapore by defeating her quarter-finals opponent in the Single's,

Wang Yuegu Wang Yuegu (, ; born 10 June 1980) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player who was ranked among the top ten players in the world. Wang made her inaugural appearance as a Singaporean table tennis player on the International Tab ...

in three straight games. In the third Double's game, she paired up with

Sayaka Hirano is a Japanese five-time national table tennis champion. She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the third round of the singles competition. She also competed in the team competition, reaching the bronze medal final but losing to So ...

to overcome

and

Li Jiawei Li Jiawei (; born 9 August 1981) is a retired Chinese-born former Singaporean table tennis player, four-time Olympian and twice Olympic medalist. She trained in Beijing's famous Shichahai Sports School with Olympic medalist Zhang Yining. In ...

in three straight games as well. The wins together with

overcoming

in the first game brought Japan to their first table tennis finals in the Olympics in three straight matches. However, Japan failed to beat China in the finals but got their first ever

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in table tennis. She won bronze with the Japanese Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro 2016, beating together with

and

Mima Ito is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics when she was 15 years old. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the Mixed Doubles ev ...

on her side the team from Singapore. She also represented Japan in the women's singles event, where she crashed out of the tournament after suffering a cramp in her leg, losing 4–3 to North Korea's Kim Song-i in their third-round match. At the 2017 World Table Tennis Championships held in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, partnering compatriot

Maharu Yoshimura is a Japanese table tennis player. Life and career 1993–2010: Early life and background Yoshimura was born in Ibaraki Prefecture to a Filipina mother and a Japanese father. His first name is a Japanese transliteration of the Tagalog word " ...

in the mixed doubles event, Ishikawa and Yoshimura progressed through to the final, beating the combination of

Fang Bo Fang Bo (; born November 6, 1992) is a Chinese male table tennis player. In 2002, Fang Bo became a member of the Shandong Luneng table tennis club. In 2009, he joined the China national table tennis first team. In the same year December 2009, h ...

and

Petrissa Solja Petrissa Solja (born 11 March 1994) is a German table tennis player. Solja won silver in the team event in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She reached her highest world ranking of thirteenth in March 2016. Personal life Solja was bor ...

in the semi-finals, and overcame the Taiwanese pair of

Chen Chien-an Chen Chien-an (; born 16 June 1991) is a Taiwanese table tennis player. He won the 2008 World Junior Table Tennis Championships in singles. In May 2013, in the 52nd World Table Tennis Championships held in Paris, France, Chen Chien-an and Chua ...

and

Cheng I-ching Cheng I-ching (; born 15 February 1992) is a Taiwanese table tennis player. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's singles event, in which she was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Li Xiaoxia, and as part of the Chinese Taipei ...

4–3 to win the first title in this tournament. It was also Japan's first mixed doubles gold medal after 48 years. In January 2020, she was announced to be part of the women's table tennis team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, together with

Ito Mima is a Japanese table tennis player. She won a bronze medal in the Women's Team event at the 2016 Summer Olympics when she was 15 years old. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal with her partner Jun Mizutani in the Mixed Doubles eve ...

and

Miu Hirano (born 14 April 2000) is a Japanese table tennis player. She won Women's World Cup in 2016 as the youngest ever winner. She won the women's singles at the 2017 Asian Table Tennis Championships by sweeping away three top Chinese players. She comp ...

. Furthermore, she will be making her third appearance in the Singles category with

2021

ITTF World Tour 2017 German Open Ishikawa Kasumi 01

Ishikawa defeated Miyuu Kihara in the semi-finals and Mima Ito in the finals to win the All Japan National Championships in 2021 for the first time in five years. Afterwards, Ishikawa said that she was enjoying practicing recently, which she attributed to the pandemic putting things in perspective. In her first international event of 2021, Ishikawa was upset by Hina Hayata in the round of 16 in the WTT Contender event at WTT Doha. In June, Ishikawa stated that she was 70% ready for the Tokyo Olympics and that she wanted to spend the final month preparing so that there would be no regrets. Ishikawa lost in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics to

Yu Mengyu Yu Mengyu (; born 18 August 1989) is a retired Chinese-born Singaporean table tennis player. Born in Liaoning, China, Yu left China in 2006 at the age of 17 to join the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA). She was part of the team that ...

of Singapore. Ishikawa won silver in the team event.

Popularity

In Japan, Ishikawa has ranked among the five "most-liked" sportswomen every year from 2014 to 2020 in surveys published by

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

, after ranking No. 10 in 2013. As she is fluent in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

which she learned from Chinese coaches, her popularity has also extended to China. When she opened a

Sina Weibo Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily acti ...

account in 2016, she gained over 60,000 followers on the first day. Ishikawa appeared in the 2017 film ''

Mixed Doubles Mixed doubles or mixed pairs is a form of mixed-sex sports that consists of teams of one man and one woman. This variation of competition is prominent in curling and racket sports, such as tennis, table tennis and badminton (where it is known as ...

'' as herself.

Career records

;Singles * All Japan Championship: 1st (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2021), 2nd (2012, 2013, 2017, 2019). *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

: 2nd (2015), 3rd (2014). * World Tour Grand Finals: 1st (2014), 3rd (2016). *

Asian Championships An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics * Asia ...

: QF (2012). *

Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London took place from Saturday 28 July to Wednesday 8 August 2012 at ExCeL London. 174 athletes, 86 men and 88 women, competed in four events. Table tennis has appeared at the Summer Olympics on six ...

: 4th (2012). * World Tour winner (8): Morocco Open (2010), Chile Open (2011), Russian Open (2014), Swedish Open (2016), Bulgaria Open (2015, 2017), German Open (2018), Czech Open (2018). *

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

: QF (2009, 2017). * Asian Cup: 3rd (2007, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019). ;Doubles *

: round of 16 (2011). *Pro Tour winner (6): Morocco Open (2009); German, Morocco, Hungarian Open (2010), Chile Open (2011), Bulgaria Open (2017). *Pro Tour Grand Finals: runner-up (2011). *

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF) from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until t ...

: SF (2010). ;Mixed doubles *

: 1st (2017, 2019), 2nd (2015), round of 16 (2011). *Asian Games: SF (2010). *

: QF (2009). ;Team *

: 2nd (2014, 2016, 2018), 3rd (2008, 2010). *

World Team Cup The World Team Cup was the international men's team championship of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). The inaugural edition of the tournament was contested in 1975 in Kingston, Jamaica and was called the Nations Cup. No tourname ...

: 2nd (2011, 2013, 2018, 2019); 3rd (2009, 2010, 2015). *

Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's team The women's team table tennis event was part of the table tennis programme at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The event took place from Friday 3 August to Tuesday 7 August 2012 at ExCeL London. The tournament was a single elimination tourn ...

Silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

(2012). *

Table tennis at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's team The women's team table tennis event was part of the table tennis programme at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The event took place from Friday 12 August to Tuesday 16 August 2016 at Riocentro. The medals were presented by Timothy F ...

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

(2016). *

Table tennis at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's team The women's team table tennis event was part of the table tennis programme at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The event took place from 1 August to 5 August 2021 at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium is a sporting complex in Sendagaya, Shib ...

(2021).

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishikawa, Kasumi 1993 births Living people Japanese female table tennis players People from Yamaguchi (city) Asian Games medalists in table tennis Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in table tennis Olympic silver medalists for Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players of Japan Table tennis players at the 2010 Asian Games Table tennis players at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games silver medalists for Japan Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games World Table Tennis Championships medalists Kinoshita Abyell Kanagawa players Oath takers at the Olympic Games 21st-century Japanese women