"Two hours a day on Nintendo is enough" — Puyo Puyo Japan's 11-year-old champion reveals the secret behind his youngest-ever gold medal... "My dream job is to be a math teacher" [Aichi Nagoya AG]

*This content was translated by AI.

Kurihara Yuki (Tokyo Verdy), an 11-year-old boy from Japan who became the youngest gold medalist in Asian Games history in the "Puyo Puyo" category of e-sports at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, shared his confident victory remarks.

Japan's "Asahi Shimbun" reported on the 5th that Kurihara attended an e-sports results briefing session held in Tokyo for the Asian Games and expressed his hope for the expansion of e-sports, stating, "Anyone can become strong enough if they practice."

Kurihara, a fifth-grade elementary school student, is a master of chain techniques in "Puyo Puyo," a puzzle game where players connect four or more falling "puyos" of the same color to pop them.

Born on June 18, 2015, he stood at the top by completely defeating South Korea's Kang Dong-shin (25) with a score of 10-2 in the final held on the 26th of last month at Aichi Sky Expo in Tokoname City, Aichi Prefecture, showcasing a 15-chain big technique.

With this victory, Kurihara simultaneously broke the records for the youngest medalist and the youngest gold medalist in Asian Games history. The previous youngest gold medal was held by Choi Jeong-sil (North Korea, 12 years and 5 months old) in women's artistic gymnastics vault at the 1979 Bangkok Games, while the youngest medal was won by Nimas Bunga Chinta (Indonesia, 12 years old) in skateboarding at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.

Kurihara, who advanced to the final by defeating players from Singapore and Thailand in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively, left a youthful impression immediately after the final, saying, "I am truly happy to have faced the strong player I most wanted to compete against and secured a decisive victory," and added, "The gold medal is really beautiful and heavy. The doll is cute too."

Kang Dong-shin, who won the silver medal at the time, also acknowledged his defeat cleanly, stating, "It is clear that my opponent was one level above me. Kurihara's chain combo techniques and accuracy are truly outstanding."

On this day, Kurihara spoke about his secret to winning, saying, "I had quite a bit of confidence that I would win. Since I can become even stronger, I will strive toward higher goals."

He started playing games on the Nintendo Switch after entering elementary school and began his serious career as an athlete by placing in the top ranks at international tournaments from his second year of elementary school.

He also looked forward to the emergence of new strong players. Kurihara encouraged others, saying, "Since I, a fifth-grade elementary school student, won, anyone can become strong if they play games a lot. I hope you will become stronger through lots of practice." He added, "I hope more players will join and stronger players will appear on the world stage. Competing against strong opponents is fun."

Although he reached the top of Asia, Kurihara's daily life remains unchanged. On weekdays, he spends one to two hours a day finding opponents via social networking services (SNS) to enjoy games in Daejeon. He cited "his mother's congratulations" as the most joyful congratulatory message and shyly answered a question about his future aspirations by saying, "I want to become a subway institutional investor or a math teacher at an academy."

Meanwhile, the Japanese e-sports team failed to win any medals when it was first adopted as an official event at the 2023 Hangzhou Games, but performed well at this tournament, harvesting a total of five medals, including a gold medal in the "Pokemon Unite" category, with Kurihara being the youngest member of the Japanese delegation.

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*This content was translated by AI.