Like Thomas Gottschalk, Timo Boll is a ruthless overcoat.
The next big sports career is coming to an end - at least internationally: table tennis legend Timo Boll is retiring at the age of 43. In the Olympic team competition, he still occasionally shows a glimpse of his old class, but it's not enough for the very top.
Timo Boll and Thomas Gottschalk have one thing in common. They don't stick to planned times. Once, the ZDF insert during "Wetten dass ...?" became legendary, stating that the showmaster needed a little more time again. Gottschalk chatted like a world champion and constantly overran. The subsequent shows were shifted by several minutes. Boll can only laugh tiredly about this. He overran by years, by over a decade! Now both have finished, and the table tennis star has arrived in the pantheon of German sports gods, alongside basketball giant Dirk Nowitzki, tennis legend Boris Becker, Formula 1 icon Michael Schumacher, and others.
Originally, the Kellen champion announced on the late Tuesday evening after his last international match that he had only wanted to play until the end of 2020 and then do an apprenticeship as a banker. He had long since abandoned this plan. Boll is now 43 years old and still a big player at the table. But not the giant he was for years, who made him a great threat to the Chinese table tennis empire. He led the world rankings several times, but became neither world champion nor Olympic champion. He has two individual bronze medals at the World Championships in his resume, five silver and one bronze with the team. He has also won eight European Championship gold medals individually, seven times with the team, and so on. He is thus the continental record champion.
He is also highly decorated at the Olympic Games, not as a solo player at the table, but with the team. He has won two silver medals (2008 and 2021) and two bronze medals (2012 and 2016). And he would have loved to add one last medal to this list. But this dream of a perfect farewell burst against the bear-strong Swedes around Kristian Karlsson, individual silver medalist Truls Moregardh, and Anton Kallberg, who defeated Boll 3-1 in the decisive match. "There are reasons why I said that after the Olympics, it's over. It's getting harder and harder for me to play at this high level. Today, I didn't quite manage it," he said in the ARD.
China even trained Boll clones at one time
In many moments, the 43-year-old can still keep up with the absolute world's best. But the whip cracks less often, the forehand hardly shoots out anymore. His consistency is gone. That was also the case on the late Tuesday. After losing the first two sets narrowly, he impressively fought back against defeat. He brought out the "Odenwald fighting pig" (this nickname was given to him by his friend Dirk Nowitzki) one last time. Boll played aggressively, bravely, won long rallies through his own strength, not through his opponent's mistakes. A 0-3 defeat would have been unworthy of the legend's career. He has shaped this sport like few others. He mixed up the Chinese dynasty so much that they trained clones of the German to imitate the hardly readable and always very variable game of the "intruder". Hard to believe: Even in the Middle Kingdom, Boll found many fans, enjoyed great respect. At his last appearance there this year, over 10,000 fans cheered for him.
He was a role model for countless players. Like Felix Lebrun, the 17-year-old French prodigy who stirred up the summer games with his powerful play and seemed born to challenge the Chinese dominance, perhaps even shake up the table tennis world. A massive hype broke out in his homeland, comparable to that around football star Kylian Mbappé.
Now the time of the German giant has come to an end. And it's happening in front of a large audience at Arena Sud 4, which has become a boiling cauldron of atmosphere in Paris. Sold out, of course. Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf was in attendance, who can celebrate sporting events these days. First, he admired the world record of pole vaulter Armand Duplantis and embraced him, then he witnessed the resurrection of the Swedish table tennis nation, which once had great heroes like Jan-Ove Waldner, Jörgen Persson, and Mikael Appelgren. Whether the current generation can follow in their footsteps remains to be seen, but the boys certainly have the talent.
"I've been resisting it for years"
Another giant had come to watch Boll: Dirk Nowitzki, a good friend for years and a career advisor. "He's been saying for years, 'Finally, let's do something together.' I've been resisting, but now it's time," Boll said, at least on the international stage. He had already announced in May that he wanted to play one more year for his home club, Borussia Düsseldorf. "A big one is retiring. I'm glad it worked out that I could be here," said the former NBA champion Nowitzki. "I met Timo in 2008 at the Olympic Games in Beijing. We've been very good friends ever since. We see each other often. He's a heartfelt person."
What emotional scenes there were as Boll hit his last forehand. First, the 43-year-old smiled briefly, then the emotions overwhelmed him. The hall rose, calling his name. Not just the German fans. Everyone cheered for the man who had given this spectacular sport so many great moments. Even the Swedes lined up respectfully and applauded. Boll greeted the audience with his hands and eventually buried his face in his towel. He dried his tears. "When the chants with my name came, it hit me hard."
"Life afterwards isn't so bad"
Boll could, he thought, "be quite satisfied with how the past 25 years have gone. And I will really miss it. But everything has felt right so far." The inevitable farewell pain was naturally palpable. "I've known the guys for so long, I've been playing with Dima for 18 years, it's really like a small family," Boll said. "I'm already very emotional about it." What's next for him? He's not sure yet. Before the table tennis legend, several German sports giants had already retired: tennis icon Angelique Kerber, beach volleyball legend Laura Ludwig, and 3x3 Olympic champion Svenja Brunckhorst. For gymnastics world champion Lukas Dauser, this was definitely his last competition, and he might also retire completely. The same could apply to "Hammer-Schorsch," the volleyball icon Georg Grozer.
Nowitzki eases his fear of the void: "Many beautiful times lie ahead of him," the basketball legend told the German Press Agency. "We athletes always have a bit of fear about stopping. After doing something for 20, 25, 30 years, there's initially a certain emptiness. But life afterwards isn't as bad as it sounds." And the originally planned, likely less exciting banking apprenticeship, that's not happening. That's clear.
Timo Boll's retirement from international table tennis opens up the possibility for a new generation of players to challenge the Chinese dominance, much like how 17-year-old French prodigy Felix Lebrun did at the summer games. In the past, even China trained Boll clones to emulate his unique and unpredictable playing style.
As the Swedes overcame Boll in their decisive match, they dealt a blow to his dream of adding a final medal to his impressive Olympic record. Despite this, Boll has left an indelible mark on the sport, mixing up the Chinese dynasty so much that they felt compelled to mimic his game.
