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