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Swedish table tennis legend Jan-Ove Waldner on Paris Olympics Men's singles
CGTN Europe
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05/08/2024
Jan-Ove Waldner, Swedish Table Tennis Olympic Champion in 1992 spoke to CGTN Europe on the Paris Olympics Men's singles final.
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00:00
All right, let's pick up on table tennis now.
00:02
Jan-Uwe Woldner is a Swedish former table tennis player.
00:06
He competed in five Olympics, winning the gold in the singles event in 1992.
00:11
And, of course, as we reported earlier, China's Fang Zhendong beat Sweden's Truls MĂžrgaard earlier on Sunday.
00:18
Thank you so much for joining us, Jan-Uwe.
00:20
You must have watched this game with so much interest because, of course,
00:24
you've got to this point in Olympics as well, facing Chinese players each time.
00:30
One win, you got the silver.
00:33
At one point, your countryman was ahead.
00:36
What do you think gave Fang the winning edge today?
00:40
I think it was a really great match from Truls.
00:44
Everyone in Sweden is so happy for his tournament.
00:48
He was playing fantastic all the tournament.
00:50
He beat Wang Yixing.
00:51
And then in the final with Fang Zhendong, who is so strong mentally and also very powerful in the game,
00:59
I think the chance was for Truls that he should be up 2-1 in sets.
01:04
After 1-2, it was difficult to come back.
01:07
All right. Talk to me a little bit more about MĂžrgaard because him reaching the finals is quite an achievement.
01:14
In fact, no Swede has done that since 2000 when you claimed silver and, of course, before that in 1992 when you won gold.
01:24
The Chinese are brilliant at table tennis.
01:28
What do you make of MĂžrgaard's performance and what does it take to beat the Chinese?
01:35
Yeah, he showed that he could beat Wang Yixing, who is also the number one ranked in the world.
01:41
I mean, to beat two Chinese, from the two best Chinese now in the same tournament is very difficult.
01:48
But like I said before, you need a little bit luck and also play on his level.
01:53
But I think his best level and I think in the final he played a really fantastic match.
01:58
I think for table tennis, it was also a fantastic match.
02:01
But the silver win for Fang Zhendong is a great player.
02:05
Talk to me a little bit more about table tennis in China.
02:09
They take it incredibly seriously.
02:11
It's the national sport.
02:13
What can other countries learn from China?
02:16
Is it the coaching techniques?
02:18
Is it the government's support for the game?
02:20
I think it's a mix from all.
02:23
In Sweden, we have only 10,000 table tennis players and in China, they have 30 million.
02:29
So some people are playing, so it's difficult to compete with them.
02:33
But you can also now see in the rest of the world that there are many new players coming up.
02:39
Like LeBrun, who was coming to number three.
02:43
He's only 17 years old.
02:45
And he's from Europe also.
02:47
It was two European players in the top three now in the Olympics.
02:50
So it's a fantastic result for Europe and also a fantastic tournament in France, in Paris.
02:55
It was really great that LeBrun was also making a medal from the French team.
03:02
Do you think that table tennis is a growing sport?
03:05
I'm thinking of your compatriot getting to these finals.
03:09
Is it something that's going to spark more interest in table tennis?
03:12
Or is it actually a sport on the way?
03:15
I think we're on the way up again because in all sports, you need good competition.
03:21
And this time, we could give quite good competition with the Chinese.
03:25
The problem was before, always the Chinese was always too strong the last five, six, seven years.
03:31
They had no one to really have big matches with.
03:34
But now, we've shown that not only Troye Smelling, but we have also some other players who are coming up.
03:40
And I think it was a perfect Olympic Games for table tennis.
03:45
Completely full all the time.
03:47
It was nearly the same like in China.
03:50
This is probably the best country to play table tennis in.
03:54
But in France, it was fantastic.
03:55
So I'm very happy for the sport.
03:57
And I think many other sportsmen were coming to watch our sport.
04:01
So I think this is a big thing for us now.
04:04
Well, thank you so much for speaking to us.
04:06
It really is an honor to speak to Jan Overvolter.
04:09
He's a Swedish former table tennis champ.
04:13
He has won at the Olympics two medals, in fact.
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