May 8, 2021 Nako Motohashi, one of Japan’s top point guards, was practicing with the provisional national team in November when she suddenly felt pain in her knee on a drive to the basket. After being attended to by team staff and doctors, Motohashi received the bad news shortly after the injury — she had suffered ligament damage in her right knee. At the time, Motohashi thought — quite naturally — the injury had shut the door on her chances of competing at the Tokyo Olympics. Once she found out that was not necessarily the case, Motohashi resolved to do everything she could to play at the Summer Games.