Name: Vitória Hikari Ucima
Age: 18
Year: Freshman (Class of 2021)
Major: Public Relations
Cásper Líbero won only one gold medal this year at JUCA, the college games for universities of communication and arts. And it was achieved by a freshman: Vitória Ucima, student of Public Relations and table tennis player.
Besides being a freshman and joining the team in the beginning of the year, her career in the sport didn’t start here. Vitória started playing while back, in 2009, and got her federate certificate in 2014 right after being invited to play for the Estate and winning the championship. She also played the South American championship in Paraguay and the Latin American in Puerto Rico.
Her Campus: How was being invited to play at JUCA?
Vitória: I was talking to a friend in class and she told me that she was part of the table tennis team at Cásper and I told her that I also played. So she told it to the team’s director who told the couch that I’d be interested in joining the team. Since he already knew that I’m a federate, he invited me to play at the games. There are some matches that are doubles and my first game was with Marta, a former Cásper student who still plays for the team.
HC: Were you nervous before and during the matches at JUCA?
V: Before the match I wasn’t but then, when it started to get close to my game, I started to get nervous because there were a lot of people watching. When I was going for my first service, my hands were trembling – this has happened before though – and then it got normal again.
I kinda felt that I had to win, especially because I was playing against a team that is Cásper’s rival, so before the match the couch got all of us together and gave us a motivational speech. Actually, before playing I started crying – and this has never happened before. After my first time as a winner I also cried, but of relief (laughs).
Image Source: Personal File
HC: You had a lot of feelings and emotions going on, right? (laughs) What about after the win, did you celebrate?
V: After winning all of the players from the team went to one of the parties from JUCA and we were together all night. It was really nice.
Image Source: Personal File
HC: I bet your family was really proud of you. What does your family think about you playing table tennis?
V: They are already used to me playing bigger championships, so JUCA wasn’t such a big deal. After playing many games and your family investing money in it, they kinda like it, you know? Besides, table tennis is like a big family, everybody is pretty close. And my cousins also play, so we always travel together and my grandmother gets really proud and happy about it. One of them started playing because of us – he started when he was 7 – and now is already playing for small championships.
HC: And as for the last question, what are your expectations and plans related to the sport?
V: For now, I want to go to the international championship “Mundial Universitário”, but first I need to win the one called JUBs (Brazilian College Games, in English).