Naohiro Ikeda-Nakano

Naohiro Ikeda was a successful volleyball player in the 1960s, winning the bronze medal with the Japanese team at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the first time an Olympic volleyball tournament was held. At the 1968 Olympics he was entered as a player-coach of the silver medal winning team but did not actually play. Ikeda was also a member of the Japanese team at the 1962 and 1966 World Championships and the 1965 World Cup.

Ikeda graduated from Fukuoka University and subsequently joined Yawata Iron & Steel. He coached the Japanese men’s national team as an assistant coach 1972 in Munich and was promoted to national coach at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and general coach at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He later served as president of the Nakano Kamaboko food store in Nagasaki. At the age of 80 he died of a lymphoma in the first days of 2021.