Cláudio Kano


Cláudio Mitsuhiro Kano was a Japanese Brazilian table tennis player who helped popularize the sport in Brazil and "spearheaded Brazilian table tennis in the 1990s".
Aged 17, he shared two gold medal, in men's doubles and men's team, at the Pan American Games. He went on to win five more golds, three silvers, and two bronze at later Pan American Games. He died in a motorcycle accident in his native São Paulo, aged 30. He had participated in the Summer Olympic Games of 1988 and 1992, but lost in the first stages of both.