is a Japanese male volleyball player and an Olympian. He plays as an Outside Hitter for

Nippon Sport Science University , abbreviated as , is a private university in Setagaya, Tokyo and Aoba-ku, Yokohama. The precursor of the school was founded in 1893, and it was chartered as a university in 1949. The school is known for the many famous athletes among its alumni. ...

's club,

Japan men's national volleyball team The Japan men's national volleyball team ( ja, 男子バレーボール日本代表) represents Japan in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, governed by Japan Volleyball Association. Their nickname is "''RYUJIN NIPPON (� ...

and Vero Volley Monza.

Biography

Ran has one brother, Rui, who is one and a half year older, and one younger sister, Riri. He started playing volleyball following the footsteps of his brother. His sister also plays volleyball.

Personal life

He owns a Instagram account with 1.5 million followers, a YouTube and Tiktok channel with his brother, called RanRui, which is a portmanteaux of their given names. ''Ran Takahashi: The First Photobook'', a career retrospective, was released on August 22, 2022.

Career

Elementary school years

Ran started playing volleyball in his second grade of elementary school for the school's team.

High school years

Ran played for Kyoto Municipal Hachigaoka Junior High School. Because of his height, in the first grade, he was mainly used as a Libero. Afterward, he attended Higashiyama High School, and he was in the starting line up in high school since his first year and served as an ace and captain of his team by the third year. He led his team to the top 4 of the "Inter-High School Sports Festival." Furthermore, his team won the "National Sports Festival" of Japan as well as the winter 2020 All Japan High School Volleyball Championships, also known as "''Haruko.''" In addition, he received the "Most valuable player" award at the end of the competition. He has no under category experience at all, but he was immediately elected as a senior representative in February 2020 while he was still in the 3rd grade of high school.

College years and overseas

After graduating from high school, Ran entered

. He led the team, receiving the runner-up place in the 2020 All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship, and got the ''Best scorer'' award from the competition. In 2021, he was one of the Outside Hitter for 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 1 ...

. After winning 2nd place at the Asian Men's Volleyball Championship with the

, he returned to play for his college team in the 2021 Kanto University Men's Division 1 League, winning 1st place by defeating Waseda University in straight sets. He also played for his college team in the 2021 All Japan Intercollegiate Volleyball Championship. Regrettably, they lost in the quarterfinals against Jutendo University in 5 sets. On November 29, it was reported that Ran would play in the Italian Volleyball League Division 1 with Pallavolo Padova. He flew to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

on December 10 and his jersey number is 14, the same as Yūki Ishikawa's when he played with Padova. On December 19, he debuted in the highest Italian league as a substitute in the third set against

Modena Volley Modena Volley is a professional volleyball team based in Modena, Italy. It has played in the highest level of the Italian Volleyball League without interruption since 1968. It is the most successful Italian club, having won the national league tw ...

. Pallavolo Padova announced that Ran has renewed his contract with the club for Season 2022-2023. He was nominated MVP of the match against Valsa Group Modena for the first time in Italian league. Vero Volley Monza revealed that they have signed with Ran Takahashi for Season 2023–2024.