Jan-Ove Waldner - 老瓦 (Lǎo Wǎ)

Jan-Ove Waldner (born 3 October 1965) is a Swedish former table tennis player. He is often referred to as "the Mozart of table tennis," and is widely regarded as being the greatest table tennis player of all time. A sporting legend in his native Sweden as well as in China, he is known in China as 老瓦 Lǎo Wǎ ("Old Waldner") or 常青树 Cháng Qīng Shù ("Evergreen Tree"), because of his extraordinary longevity and competitiveness.
Biography
Jan-Ove Waldner was born in Stockholm on 3 October 1965. His athletic potential was recognized at an early age and was displayed in 1982 when, as a 16-year-old, he reached the final of the European Championships, losing to distinguished left-handed teammate Mikael Appelgren, who was perceived then as the logical successor to the original Swedish World Champion, Stellan Bengtsson. While still developing his game, Waldner, along with several other Swedish players, traveled to a national-level training camp held in China, and was reportedly amazed by the dedication and solidarity of the Chinese players. He has claimed ever since that he learned much during his stay, and thereafter first began to regard his opportunity to succeed in table tennis as paramount. In China, a country that adores table tennis, he is undisputedly the best-known[3] Swedish person, and still one of the most well-known sports personalities. In the 1990s, he was more recognizable in China than then President of the United States Bill Clinton. His venerable status and long career has led to his being nicknamed "the evergreen tree" (Chang Qing Shu) in Mandarin. He is considered by many to be the most technically complete player of all time, and is almost inarguably the most successful non-chinese player who has ever lived.
He received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1992.
As of 2015, Waldner has been playing international elite level table tennis for more than thirty years, which is somewhat unusual in the table tennis world given that hand-eye coordination and quick reactions are essential. Some young Chinese players whom he has recently played against were trained by those he played against in the 1990s, who were in turn trained by others he played in the 1980s.
He is one of the seven table tennis players who competed at the first five Olympic Games table tennis tournaments since the sport's introduction at the Games in 1988. The others are Swede Jörgen Persson, Croatian Zoran Primorac, Belgian Jean-Michel Saive, Hungarian Csilla Bátorfi, Serbian-American Ilija Lupulesku, and German Jörg Roßkopf.
In 2010 Waldner won his ninth Swedish championship against Pär Gerell, who was born the same year Waldner became Swedish national champion for the first time.
He played for TTC Rhön-Sprudel Fulda-Maberzell in the German Bundesliga until May 2012. In May 2012 Stefan Frauenholz, Fulda-Maberzell's President, confirmed that Jan-Ove Waldner finished his contract with the club. Timo Boll: "Was yesterday's match against us the last one for Jan-Ove Waldner?" referring to the Bundesliga semifinal between Borussia Düsseldorf and Fulda-Maberzell. This ended his career at the international elite level, at the age of 46 years.
He is one of only five male players in the history of table tennis to achieve a career grand slam (World Champion and World Cup winner in singles, Olympic gold medal in singles) (in 1992). The others are: Liu Guoliang, China (in 1999), Kong Linghui, China (in 2000), Zhang Jike, China (in 2012), and Ma Long, China (in 2016).
In 2012 he began playing for Spårvägens BTK.
On 11 February 2016 Waldner played his last game in the Swedish first league for Ängby/Spårvägen and officially announced his retirement as a player.
Olympic Games
1988 Final 8 in single, final 8 in double
1992 Gold medal in single, first round in double
1996 Final 16 in single, final 8 in double
2000 Silver medal in single, final 16 in double
2004 Fourth in single, final 8 in double
World Championships
1983 Silver medal in team competition
1985 Silver medal in team competition
1987 Silver medal in single, silver medal in team competition
1989 Gold medal in single, gold medal in team competition
1991 Silver medal in single, gold medal in team competition
1993 Bronze medal in single, gold medal in team competition
1995 Silver medal in team competition
1997 Gold medal in single (21-0 in games), silver medal in double
1999 Bronze medal in single
2000 Gold medal in team competition
2001 Bronze medal in team competition

[@suatkayatennis]

Waldner sustained a world-class level for 3 decades. Facing 3-4 breeds of new and world-class players from China plus the rest of the world and defeating them all. Waldner faced massive game-changing factors including; Speed glue, change of ball size, new high tech rubbers, new scoring system and adapted to all with great success. Waldner also reached the highest-level TT had ever seen in his prime and raised the level a few times. Waldner was far more creative and constantly developing his game by reinventing himself. This gave him the ability to beat world class players and compete for major titles up until he was 45 years old. Waldner did not come from a nation of 200 million TT players. He did not have the best infrastructure such as China and yet from a small TT community in Sweden he enabled himself to become the greatest player anyone had ever seen back in the ’80s-’90s and early ’00s.

[@Bruno90s]

Suat Kaya is totally absolutely truth ✌🏻👏🏻🇸🇪🏓

[@monortues]

No, six generations.

[@nmidiversity]

He was n still the best for me.:)

[@detskalldaltas133]

BEST IN THE WORLD HISTORY IN EVERY SPORTS!

[@srinjoymajumder6942]

That shot against Timo Boll sums up the GOD status of this player.

[@cpa59]

both points "the walking" and "the blocks" are incredible

[@bogdantenev2847]

A true legend!Table tennis genius!😇

[@cathymeaw]

What a great man.

[@Tak8835]

2:53 My personal favourite shot... calmness and control of the entire point. The fastest thing in the whole match is JOW's mind.

[@Funkytrip73]

Point right after at 3:08 is also a masterclass in blocking. He sends the opponent from left to right by literally doing nothing but holding his bat in front of the ball and doing a slight tap.

[@Wraithlen]

His anticipation is like no one else in TT. Ever. He can just stand there flat footed and smoke the best of the best. It's crazy!

[@anantkeni4721]

5:04 Quiet easy to trace the ball,right?

[@Viktor2252]

Лучший из лучших!!!

[@_chao]

He's only such a good player the anount of spin and power he generates is insane.

[@frankdevries5739]

+ his brilliant service + superb anticipation + the master of the touch + changing the pace + amazing under pressure ++++++

[@dickn.ormous1064]

@@frankdevries5739 What people call anticipation is setting up his favourite shots using spin.

[@vigulfmusicproduct]

Mozart Symphony(ball 41)no 41!

[@reezal_dchannel3301]

still legend...mozart of TT

[@Mystify73]

Great time of TT. A. Grubba on 3:59 . Both are legends

[@etiennecauty6250]

5:05 So back then the balls were 0 mm??

[@otisskopik1400]

best of all time

[@lhsleo3175]

Waldner was basically invincible from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, and was outstanding enough. Before, he was afraid of Jiang Jialiang, then he was afraid of Liu Guoliang, and then he lost to Kong Linghui, Ma Lin, Wang Liqin and others.

[@pastorius1]

Ma Lin was mauled by JOW in Athens olympics round 4 men's singles

[@alberthuang4868]

@@pastorius1 but Ma Lin has a 7-2 lifetime record against Waldner

[@r.boubaya532]

@@alberthuang4868 and his younger of 15 years Shit, Walner was the best for more than 20 years...He is simply the best of all time.

[@alberthuang4868]

@@r.boubaya532 Waldner won his 1st major title in 1989 and the last international title was won in 1998 for a good 9 years. All the top players winning years lasted about a decade.

[@alberthuang4868]

do proper research before commenting on media hype about Waldner winning for 3 decades

[@kortlandlfskdjflaskjdf7979]

We need the smaller balls back.. pre 2000

[@dysonin5800]

我想學3:57那個

[@pastorius1]

I saw that scene with my own eyes in Bukit Jalil Stadium, Kuala Lumpur in 2000

[@hawkiebaby]

The Muhammad Ali of TT.

[@sajjad3730]

واقعا بیلمییم نه دییم

[@detskalldaltas133]

Better than Bjorn Borg and Ingemar Stenmark!

[@suatkayatennis]

Det kan man lugnt säga

[@javlahora7401]

Inte ens samma sport

[@matthiasglaschke5946]

Maybe even better than Tiger Woods. Under Pressure he seemed like unbeatable, with his anticipation at a level, that is not even funny.

[@CWZ1116]

馬龍獲大滿貫及三次世界桌球錦標賽男子單打冠軍 馬龍是最偉大男子桌球選手 張繼科獲大滿貫及兩次世界桌球錦標賽男子單打冠軍 王勵勤獲三次世界桌球錦標賽男子單打冠軍 以上三人都可輕鬆打敗華德納 馬龍及張繼科技術領先華德納一個世代

[@user-ry8kr8vg7k]

Joseph Zhang 老瓦2004雅典奥运戏耍马琳时 马龙还得叫马琳一声爸爸呢