He liked to trick opponents, and table tennis table provided him with endless variations by constantly changing the ball's spin, speed and placement. From the very beginning, he possessed an ingenuity that needed to master the many dimensions of playing table tennis. As early as age seven, he could easily return 75 backhands without missing. How did J-O Waldner get to be among the best? There were early signs that J-O had the potential to be something special. The team were world champions no less than four times.

And along with Mikael Appelgren, Jörgen Persson, Erik Lindh, Peter Karlsson and Fredrik Håkansson (in Kuala Lumpur in 2000), he never finished worse than second in the team discipline except on a single occasion. Seven World Cup tournaments were played in the years 1987-1999/2000 Waldner was never worse than bronze medallist in singles except once. In addition, he has been in the World Championship final in singles twice, and twice in the semis. Waldner also has an Olympic gold as well as a silver and a fourth place. Despite Waldner winning two World Championship gold medals in singles, the second time without dropping a single set! Waldner against the world 7-0 in matches, 21-0 in sets. Four players have done this: Waldner and the Chinese Liu Guoliang, Kong Linghui and Zhang Jike, the latter born in 1988, the year table tennis made its Olympic debut, and with the major part of his career ahead of him. When it comes to comparing over time, it is ultimately about titles won, and for table tennis there is a simple rule: whoever had their heyday from the mid 1980s onwards must have won both the Olympic and world championships in singles to be in the frame. History's judgement on athletes can be tough.

But the 1990s belong to Jan-Ove Waldner and Sweden. 1960s: Zhuang Zedong, 1970s: Guo Yuehua, 1980s: Jiang Jialiang and 2000s: Wang Liqin. Yet he has managed to occupy a permanent top position on the table tennis history podium –- Lao Wa, old Waldner, the eternally verdant tree.Įvery decade can be said to have its major star, and over the past fifty years, the stars of the table tennis world have generally been Chinese.

Table tennis is China's national sport, and China is the world's most populous country with millions of table tennis players.

Jan-Ove Waldner – a giant in modern table tennis.

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