PHOTO: Bildbyrån
He will not soon forget the weeks in Paris.
Today, Truls Möregårdh plays his second Olympic final in five days.
– If you had said that in advance, I would have said that you are crazy, says the 22-year-old ahead of the fight for the team gold in table tennis.
Sweden against China in a big team final in table tennis. These are conditions that make the mouths of every blue-yellow sports romantic.
In Truls Möregårdh also.
– It’s a throwback to “the old days” with the old legends. It’s fun that we managed to get to where they were. Hopefully we will be able to do it as well as they did when they tore down the wall. So you have to believe in it all the way, says Möregårdh.
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At 15.00 he goes together with Anton Källberg and Christian Karlsson into the ping pong hall for the last time in Paris. On the other side is a Chinese men’s team that has never missed an Olympic gold, having won every World Cup since 2000.
Stress the Chinese
That time it was Peter Karlsson, Jan-Ove Waldner and Jorgen Persson – some of those old stars that Möregårdh is referring to – who arranged a Swedish WC gold.
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But if they could, so can we, reasons the Swedish team, which is coached by Jörgen Persson. The semi-final feat against Japan, where Sweden turned 0–2 into 3–2 in matches, should scare even the world’s best ping pong nation.
– We’re going to try to put the Chinese there, at least so that they start to get a little stressed, says Truls Möregårdh.
– They have a lot of self-confidence and they should have that. But it’s not fun to see a team make a pickup like we did.
READ MORE: Unexpected Swedish Olympic hero Anton Källberg’s heartwarming words after the match of his life – the admission that touches everyone: “I feel that…”
Already a success
His own Olympics are already a formidable success. In the singles tournament, he took silver after, among other things, knocking out the Chinese world number one Wang Chuqin.
Two Olympic finals in Paris he could not have dreamed of before the Games.
– If you had said that in advance, I would have said that you are crazy, says Möregårdh.
– But now we are standing here and I feel gathered and ready to take on that task.
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