Top ten Olympics table tennis players of all time

Jan-Ove Waldner

Country: SwedenHighest level of competition: Olympics (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004)

In 1980, at his very first competition – the Shanghai Open – a 15-year-old Waldner lost most of his matches. But in a matter of two years he had returned to become the youngest European Championship finalist of all time at the age of 16.

At the 1992 Olympics, Waldner became the only Swede to win a gold medal. But his affair with gold had only just begun. Over a career spanning 30 years, Waldner has not only managed to become one of the legendary figures to define world table tennis, but he has also introduced to his spectators the concept of playing the beautiful game.

Not only is he an almost effortless reader of positions, to watch him play is to watch a maestro execute a piece of artistic wonder. But more than an exhaustive list of his many medals or the recognition of the fact that he has completed a career Grand Slam in the sport, Waldner’s greatness can be measured by the simple fact that the Chinese who have for years maintained a pole position in the game of TT, have nicknamed him Chang Qing Shu, or Evergreen Tree.

An immortal sportsman, Waldner announced his retirement at the age of 50 from the game on February 11, 2016.