Li Kou-tin

Li Kou-tin (Chinese: 李國定; also romanised Lee Kuo-ting, and known in Brazil as Lee Kou Tin) was born in Taipei in 1938, during the period of Japanese rule in Taiwan. Wikipedia gives his date of birth as 16 November 1938, while a memorial notice published after his death gives 23 October 1938. He attended the Kainan commercial and industrial vocational school in Taipei and developed into a right-handed penhold player.

Table tennis was added to the Asian Games programme in 1958, at the third Games in Tokyo. Japan was then the dominant force in world table tennis, but Li beat the Japanese players Shizuji Narita and Keisuke Tsunoda to win the men's singles gold, the first in Asian Games history. He also won silver in the men's doubles with Su Jung-tsun. The Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation (CBTM) noted in 2014 that no other player from Chinese Taipei had matched that singles gold.

He won team medals at the Asian Championships, silver in Manila in 1963 and bronze in Seoul in 1964. At the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok he took bronze in the men's doubles with Yang Cheng-hsiung and silver in the men's team event, finishing his Asian Games career with one gold, two silver and one bronze.

After his playing career he became a coach abroad. Taiwanese newspapers reported in 1969 that he was warmly received as a coach in Nigeria, and he later led the Nigerian national team. In 1972 he toured Central and South America with Chen Yin-lieh, Hsieh Chin-po and Wang Shang-wu as part of Taiwan's table tennis diplomacy; the team visited nine countries and won all 49 matches.

In 1972 he was invited to establish table tennis in Santo André, in the São Paulo metropolitan area, and from 1973 he worked for the city government. He coached the Brazilian national team for 16 years and trained a generation of players who went on to coach the national side, among them Francisco Arado, Reinaldo Hideo Yamamoto, Edson Fumihiro Takahashi and Monica Dotti. Arado was later the youth coach of Hugo Calderano, Brazil's leading player, which led Chinese media to call Li Calderano's coaching grandfather. Santo André's teams won regional, state, national and international titles under his guidance, and he remained a central figure in the city's table tennis for decades.

Li settled permanently in Brazil and made Santo André his home. When Taiwanese players came to Brazil for open tournaments, he went out of his way to help them and often acted as their interpreter. His daughter, Lee Yen Hua, followed him into the sport, winning South American titles and later coaching the Brazilian national team; she continued his work in Santo André. The memorial notice issued after his death was a Christian one, quoting 2 Timothy 4:7: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

Li Kou-tin died on 16 October 2026 in Brazil, aged 87. The Liberty Times in Taipei reported that he died peacefully with his family at his side, at 4.30 in the afternoon Taiwan time. The Brazilian Table Tennis Confederation announced his death the same day and expressed its deepest sorrow. A wake was held on Saturday 17 October 2026 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Memorial Jardim Santo André in Vila Humaitá. The cause of death was not made public.

CBTM president Vilmar Schinder said that his legacy to Brazilian table tennis was priceless and would never be forgotten, and thanked him on behalf of the whole Brazilian table tennis family. His death was also reported in Taiwan and mainland China, where coverage recalled his 1958 Asian Games title.

Li's 1958 victory in Tokyo, won against Japan at the height of its dominance, made him the first Asian Games men's singles champion in table tennis and remains a landmark in Taiwanese sport. In Brazil his legacy is the coaching tradition he built: the Diário do Grande ABC described him as the coach who helped turn Santo André into a national reference for the sport, and his former pupils went on to lead the national team. Through Francisco Arado, his influence reached Hugo Calderano, who became one of the best players in the world. Santo André recognised him as an honorary citizen in 2014.