Biography
Waldner's potential was recognized at an early age and was displayed in 1982 as a 16-year-old when he reached the final of the European Championship, losing to teammate Mikael Appelgren. When he was young, he, along with other Swedish players, went to a training camp in China and was amazed by their dedication and claims he learned much during his stay. In China, a country that loves table tennis, he is the best-known Swede and a well-known sports personality. In the 1990s he was more recognized in China than Bill Clinton. Waldner is referred to as "the evergreen tree" and "Old Wa", and people often flock to see him when he comes.
He received the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 1992.
As of 2012, Waldner has been playing international elite level table tennis for 30 years, which is unusual in the table tennis world where hand-eye coordination and quick reactions are essential factors. Some young Chinese players that he has recently played against are trained by those he played against in the 1990s, who were in turn trained by others he played against in the 1980s.
He is one of seven active table tennis players to have competed at the first five Olympics since the sport was introduced to 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, born the same year Waldner became Swedish 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 four 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) and Zhang Jike, China (in 2012).
When it comes to Olympic singles medals he is still, (after the 2012 Olympics) the leader of the scoreboard, with one Gold and one Silver medal.
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