Pandemic brought together the sisters who are the faces of women’s table tennis in Brazil

“I was very angry. But after the game Bruna came to talk to me.”

Bruna Takahashi, 22, is next door and seems oblivious to the conversation. She just looks. She instantly stops answering a message on WhatsApp, looks at her sister and makes a face.

“Giulia was very nervous”, he replies.

Giulia Takahashi, 17, remembered the only time she faced the greatest table tennis player in the country’s history, currently 19th in the world rankings, and her older sister. The youngest lost that day, as was to be expected. But little by little she made her way to fulfilling dreams that involved being close to Bruna, traveling alongside her and going to the Olympics.

The two are heading to China for the adult World Cup later this month. Giulia went to the Tokyo Games as a reserve for the Brazilian team last year. She was in the stands, cheering for the other athletes. Among them, Bruno.

“I thought everyone was very organized, straight, focused…”

Bruna forgets her cell phone again and looks at Giulia, finding it funny. The girl realizes that she should explain herself better.

“It’s not that people are messy, right? Everyone is very united, who is not playing is always cheering for the other. At the base sometimes that doesn’t happen”, he adds.

Bruna is the reference of the feminine modality in Brazil. She has played in Portugal (for Sporting) and is currently an athlete for the TTC 1946 Weinheim of the Bundesliga, the first division of the German championship. She was cadet world champion in 2015, the first athlete in the country to break the barrier of the top 30 of the ranking and, later, the top 20.

Giulia is one of the revelations of national table tennis, a constant presence in the base teams and, now, in the main one. This makes her imagine that if she was a reserve in Tokyo-2020, she could play in Paris-2024. Whether in singles or doubles.

One of Bruna’s oldest memories is seeing Giulia arrive at the club where she trained in São Bernardo do Campo (big ABC) carried in her mother’s arms. She wanted to see her big sister in action. But that doesn’t mean that one wants to be like the other.

“Seeing her grow like this and evolve makes me very happy and proud. But I don’t want her to be like me. I want her to follow her path, do what she dreams of in life. mine, great. I want the best for Giulia. Of course she saw me training and automatically took the racket and started to hit”, remembers Bruna.

It may have been a fundamental memory because Giulia confesses that, at the age of eight, she was undecided. She liked theater and table tennis equally. When her parents told her that she could really dedicate herself to just one of the activities, the sport won. Perhaps unconsciously, the sister’s example was predominant.

And it matters little that the coexistence between the two for several years was not so close. Bruna Takahashi since the age of 12 is used to traveling and spending a lot of time outside.

“We spoke little to each other”, says Giulia.

It was so long away that Bruna admits that she sometimes thought about where her permanent residence was or if she had one. She was born in Brazil, lived in Portugal and lives on a São Paulo-Germany air shuttle for Bundesliga matches. That’s when she’s not with the Brazilian team.

It was the Covid-19 pandemic that changed everything. Bruna stayed at home for a year. She shared her life and training with her younger sister.

“She traveled a lot and I was younger, you know? In the pandemic we got too close and did everything together, we trained, we were side by side at home, so it was very good. It was from there that we created this connection”, assures Giulia .

Bruna Takahashi is the face of the evolution of women’s table tennis in Brazil and recognizes pride when she sees children, holding hands with their mothers, go to the training center and ask if this is the prefecture of São Caetano do Sul.

“It’s very gratifying to see people interested in the sport. What I like to answer most on Instagram are questions about places to train. I’d like to reach historic feats in the Olympics and participate in them as much as I can. says the oldest of the Takahashi.

When that happens, Giulia wants to be not only by his side to keep up, but also to compete. Together or, who knows, against each other. Why not? The only time they faced each other, Bruna won, but in the future, if the confrontation happens, it will be every man for himself. Except in the kitchen.

Giulia has plans to learn how to make dishes for a balanced diet based on the concept of Kachimeshi, a nutrition education program run by one of the duo’s sponsors. But in this you will have to fend for yourself. It won’t happen with the help of Bruna who, upon hearing the idea of ​​being the youngest, makes it clear to pay attention to everything she does despite seeming distracted.

“I, at most, can wash the dishes.”