The national table tennis team led by Möregårdh has created table tennis fever in Sweden, something that has come in fits and starts with Swedish successes such as Stellan Bengtsson’s World Cup gold as an 18-year-old in 1971 and the successes of JO Waldner and Jörgen Persson in the 1980s and 1990s.
He hears the claim that people will remember the Olympics in Paris for Möregårdh’s success in 20 years.
Olympics in Paris 2024
The words from Fan Zhendong to Truls Möregårdh: “I was lucky”
Tears flowed as Brittney Griner became Olympic champion after prison: “Means a lot”
– I feel happy that people will remember this in 20 years, because people will. I remember when the Olympic Games were in Athens and I was lazy, of course I remember that, says Möregårdh, who was two years old at the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
Möregårdh had had a difficult six months leading up to the Olympics and often went out in the first round of the big tournaments with an increasingly poor ranking as a result. He came to Paris as 26th in the world and was not even the best Swede. Even more difficult was that the superior Chinese world number one Wang Chuqin was already waiting in the second round.
“Began to believe it”
– I really didn’t believe it, especially when I saw the draw, I felt that this will be difficult. When I found out about the singles draw, I even stopped that training and felt I needed some rest. I didn’t have good statistics against Wang Chuqin (eight losses in as many matches), remembers Möregårdh, who rose to tenth in the world ranking.
– But the longer time went by, I started to believe it and all of a sudden I had beaten him and then everything was open in that tournament. In the team competition, I felt that we had a good chance of a medal.