Hiroji Satoh

Hiroji Satoh (3 February 1925 – 4 June 2000) was a male former table tennis player from Japan. From 1952 to 1953 he won several medals in singles, doubles, and team events in the World Table Tennis Championships and in the Asian Table Tennis Championships. Hiroji was the first person to use a sponge on his racket, a common feature of all modern table tennis rackets. Although, at the time it may have seen as though this technological advancement gave him an unfair advantage, it has truly brought table tennis into the modern age and as the Olympic sport we know today.