Timo Boll

Timo Boll was considered the best German table tennis player. His Olympic career spanned from 2000 at Sydney to 2020 at Tokyo and six Olympic Games. Although he never won a singles medal, he earned two silver medals (2008, 2020) and two bronzes (2004, 2008) with the German teams. In 2004 he reached the quarter-finals in the singles tournament and lost to Sweden’s veteran Jan-Ove Waldner, 4-1. In 2016 at Rio de Janeiro, Boll was chosen as the flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony.

At the World Championships, Boll earned singles bronze medals in 2011 and 2021, and silver medals with the team in 2004, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2018. He collected 19 wins on the Pro World Tour. In men’s doubles he won a silver medal in 2005. In 2017, he was named the World Table Tennis Player of the Year. In 2002 and 2005 he won the overall World Cup, and was second in 2008, 2012, 2017, 2018, and third in 2010 and 2014.

In 2019, Boll won the European Games both in singles and with the team. He added more singles gold medals at the European Championships in 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018, and 2021, with bronze medals in 2003, 2009, and 2016. With the team he won gold medals in 2007-11, 2017, and 2019, and silvers in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2014. In the men’s doubles he won European titles in 2002 and 2007-10. Boll won the European TOP tournaments in 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2018, and 2020.

In 2003, 2011, and 2018 he was world ranked #1. The left-handed shakehand player was also considered as one of the fairest players ever in the world. In China he was considered one the best non-Chinese players ever.

Nationally, Boll was German singles champion in 1998, 2001-07, 2009, 2015, and from 2017-19; German doubles champion in 1999, 2005, and 2007; and team champion 2008-12, 2014-18, and 2021. Boll played at the club level with TSV 1875 Höchst (1986-94), FTG Frankfurt (1994-95), TTV Gönnern (1995-2006), and Borussia Düsseldorf (since 2006). He helped Gönnern win two Champions League titles (2005, 2006) and five more with Borussia Düsseldorf (2009-11, 2018, 2021-22). He was awarded the Silver Bay Leaf (2008), Germany’s highest sports award and the German media prize Bambi in 2005.