When the World Table Tennis circuit rolls into São José dos Campos for the WTT Star Contender event this week, many eyes will be on Brazil‘s home stars, including Hugo Calderano.
The first non-European or non-Asian paddler to win the ITTF Men’s World Cup title when he took gold in 2025, Calderano – who turned 30 last month – is the main attraction for the home fans this week in the city northeast of São Paulo.
And while playing in his home WTT tournament is important, Calderano has already achieved his goal for the season.
“The biggest goal for me this year was definitely the World Cup,” he told Olympics.com at the World Team Championships in London in April.
“It was a success for me to just get a medal,” Calderano added of his bronze medal won at the event in Macao, China earlier the same month.
“I know I won it last year, but to get on the podium twice in a row is a big achievement for me, so I was really happy and I think it was really successful.”
Calderano now a veteran mentor for Brazil’s table tennis team
Calderano played at the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games, winning bronze as an 18-year-old in his first taste of an Olympic event. He’s since been to the Olympic Games of Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024, making him a veteran of Brazil’s table tennis team at just 30.
At April’s ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals, Calderano was the oldest member of Brazil’s men’s team, which included fellow Olympian Guilherme Teodoro aged 24, 20-year-old Leonardo Iizuka, and teenager Felipe Arado.
He approached the event – which saw Brazil eliminated in the quarter-finals by France – as a chance to share what he has learned during his career in a leadership and mentoring role.
“I’m trying to pass on a little bit of my experience, my knowledge, to help the guys,” he said at the time. “That’s my goal coming here, of course try to perform at my best and try to keep Brazilian table tennis at the top, [but] also help the guys improve so that we can have a really strong team in the future.”
But even as he helped his teammates learn, he added that he, too, continues to pick things up after so long at the top level.
“I’m not that young anymore, but I think I still have some years to go,” he said. “I think I can still improve in the sport and that’s always my mentality: to keep learning, keep improving, keep observing others and see what I can do better.”
read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/table-tennis-now-30-brazil-star-hugo-calderano-turns-to-mentor-mode-but-still-has-some-years-to-go
