The Swedish Table Tennis Association's then-sports manager Mikael Andersson knew what he was talking about in 2019, when a 17-year-old from Hovmantorp was selected for the first time in a Swedish World Championship team.
I think Swedish sports should wake up. He can beat the Chinese, said Andersson about the youngster.
Five years later, the entire table tennis world knows what Truls Möregårdh is capable of in the ping-pong hall.
Sunday's Olympic silver in Paris qualifies as one of Swedish sports' all-time greatest Olympic moments, perhaps above all considering it came so unexpectedly and despite the toughest possible opposition on the way.
Barely made the team
And since it was really a close call that the 22-year-old even made it into the Swedish Olympic team.
It ended up being between Mattias Falck and Truls Möregårdh for a spot. They are the two who have played in a World Championship final – Falck in 2019 and Truls in 2021. So it was a tough task to make the selection, said national team captain Jörgen Persson in connection with the selection.
Truls Möregårdh was born in 2002 in Hovmantorp in the Småland forests between Kalmar and Växjö. He made his debut for Eslöv in the table tennis league at the age of 14 and was quickly named as Swedish table tennis' big future name.
As a 17-year-old, he got to play in the Japanese top league, where the Swede continued to spread his now iconic victory gesture – a tribute to his father Carl.
Talking about iconic. Three years ago, Möregårdh, ranked 77th in the world before the tournament, came to the World Championship in Houston with a completely new racket, not round but with six, seven or eight edges – depending on how you count.
It ended with a sensational silver, after a loss to Fan Zhendong, the same Chinese player who was the final opponent now in the Olympic Games.
New medal chance awaits
Despite the World Championship silver in 2021, the Swede's performance in Paris is astonishing.
The truth is that Möregårdh came to France with low self-confidence and a 26th place in the world rankings. When he was also drawn against the world number one, the Chinese Wang Chuqin, in the second round, he had almost given up in advance.
That he then managed to defeat Wang was such a table tennis bombshell that it would have been enough to declare the Olympic tournament a Truls success. But the 22-year-old has continued to play as if in a trance and, among other things, saved an incredible 21 set balls while creating table tennis fever back home in Sweden.
And the Olympic journey is far from over.
On Monday, the team tournament starts, where Sweden begins against Denmark.
