DUSSELDORF: Table tennis veteran Timo Boll (pic) has been hailed as “the greatest German athlete at the moment” and approaches his seventh and final Olympics in Paris determined to bow out with another medal.
Boll, 43, is a former world number one, an eight-time European singles champion and has Olympic team event medals from the last four Games: silver in 2008 and 2021, plus bronze in 2012 and 2016.
Boll fought back from a shoulder injury last year to compete at one final Games since a Sydney 2000 debut, and will team up full of ambition with Dang Qiu and Dimitrij Ovtcharov in Paris.
“We’re spoilt for success. And that’s why we wouldn’t be happy with anything other than the final against China,” Boll said.
“Nobody would be happy if we lost the semi-final against Sweden or France and could then say: Great, we beat South Korea in the third-place match. That would feel wrong.”
Coach Jorg Rosskopf has named Boll, who was German flag bearer at the 2016 Games in Rio, “the greatest German athlete at the moment.
“During his career, our sport has enlarged the ball, changed the counting method and developed completely new systems of play,” Rosskopf said.
“And if it would have taken me a year to get to grips with it in the past, Timo can do it in a month. That’s what makes the exceptional talents.”
Boll will play one final year at his club Borussia Düsseldorf in 2025 but his international career will end in Paris.
He said the timing is perfect because he was glued to the TV as a boy to watch the Olympics and still recalls the ball with which he got to Sydney 24 years ago, naming it “one of my nicest career moments.”
He said it took the prospect of competing one more time on the biggest stage to fight back from last year’s injury.
“I said to myself in 2023: I would love to play at the Olympics. I’m fighting for that again now. But I definitely needed the incentive of the Olympics for that,” he said. “A world championship wouldn’t have been enough.”
Looking ahead at his final event, he said: “On the one hand, I’m a bit surprised that I’m really looking forward to the day after the Olympics and can then immerse myself in a different life.
“On the other hand, it stresses me out enormously, because of course you want the end to be beautiful and successful.” — AFP
