Legendary gymnast Kohei Uchimura once spoke about his deep obsession with winning an Olympic team gold medal.
The origin of that dream came when he was 15 years old and watched Japan win the team gold medal at the Athens Olympics for the first time in 28 years.
Seeing that moment, Uchimura felt he had witnessed something real — something unforgettable.
That inspiration pushed him to train even harder, eventually leading him to eight consecutive world titles in the individual all-around and, later, the team gold medal he had dreamed of at the Rio Olympics.
Shohei Ohtani experienced something similar through baseball.
For Ohtani, one of the defining memories of his childhood was the championship game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
In the tense final against South Korea, Ichiro Suzuki delivered the legendary go-ahead hit that secured Japan’s victory.
Ichiro’s passion for the WBC had always been extraordinary.
Before the tournament, he had even said that the players themselves needed to build the WBC into a tournament where wearing the Japanese national uniform would become the highest honor possible.
That emotion was fully embodied in his decisive hit.
Ohtani later reflected that what Ichiro accomplished was “something incredible not just for me, but for Japanese baseball as a whole.”
At the same time, Ohtani clearly understood that it was now his generation’s turn to create those moments for the next generation.
And to do that, Japan had to reclaim the championship it had failed to win in the previous two tournaments.
As his words suggested, Ohtani’s performance in the fifth WBC became unforgettable.
His dramatic showdown against Mike Trout in the final inning of the championship game instantly became one of the defining moments in baseball history — a moment children around the world will remember for years to come.
Just as Ichiro once inspired Ohtani, Ohtani now hopes to inspire the next generation.
Source
This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.
Number 1069, p.15