The Table Tennis God-Shaker is "brutally overpowered"
The next big German sports career is coming to an end - at least on the international stage: Timo Boll is retiring at the age of 43. He still shows glimpses of his old form in the Olympic team event, but the top is no longer within reach.
Timo Boll and Thomas Gottschalk have one thing in common. They don't stick to planned schedules. Once, the ZDF insert during "Wetten dass ...?" became legendary, stating that the showmaster was taking a little longer again. Gottschalk chatted like a world champion and constantly overran. The following shows were shifted by several minutes. Boll can only laugh tiredly about it. 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 Dirk Nowitzki, Boris Becker, Michael Schumacher, and others.
Originally, the table tennis icon announced late on Tuesday evening after his last international game, he had wanted to play until the end of 2020 and then do an apprenticeship. He had long since abandoned this plan. Boll is now 43 (!) years old and still a big player at the table, but no longer 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 never became world champion or Olympic champion. He has two bronze medals and eight European Championship gold medals in his career, making him the record champion at the continental championships.
He is also highly decorated at the Olympic Games, not individually, but with the team. He 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 ending burst against the bear-strong Swedes around Kristian Karlsson, individual silver medalist Truls Moregardh, and Anton Kallberg, who defeated Boll in the decisive match 3-1. "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 make it," he said in the ARD.
China once trained Boll clones
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. The consistency is gone. That was also the case on Tuesday evening. After he lost 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 and 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, who were supposed 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.
And he was a role model for countless players. For example, for Felix Lebrun, the 17-year-old French wonder kid who stirred up the summer games with his hitting power and was also born to challenge the Chinese empire, perhaps even to turn the table tennis order upside down. In his home country, a gigantic hype broke out, comparable to that around football star Kylian Mbappé.
The time of the German giant has come to an end. And this happened in grand style at the Sud 4 Arena, which had become a boiling hotspot of atmosphere in Paris. Sold out, of course. King Carl Gustaf of Sweden was in attendance, who could celebrate sporting triumphs in 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 step into their footsteps remains to be seen. But the guys definitely have the talent for it.
And another giant had come to watch Boll: Dirk Nowitzki, a good friend for years and a career advisor for just as long. "He's been saying for years, 'Finally, let's do something together.' I've always resisted, 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 leaving. I'm glad it worked out that I could be here," said 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 really nice guy."
What emotional scenes there were when Boll hit his last forehand! First, the 43-year-old smiled briefly, then the emotions overwhelmed him. The hall rose and called his name. Not just the German fans, but everyone. Even the Swedes, who lined up respectfully and applauded. Boll greeted the audience with his hands and buried his face in his towel. He wiped away his tears. "When the cheers with my name came, it hit me hard."
"I can be quite satisfied with how the past 25 years have gone," Boll said. "And I will really miss it. But everything has felt right until now." The inevitable farewell sadness was naturally present. "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. I don't know exactly what's next for me." Before the table tennis legend, several German sporting greats had already retired: tennis icon Angelique Kerber, beach legend Laura Ludwig, and 3x3 Olympic champion Svenja Brunckhorst. For gymnastics world champion Lukas Dauser, these were the last games, and he might also retire completely. The same could apply to "Hammer-Schorsch," volleyball icon Georg Grozer.
Nowitzki at least takes away his fear of the void: "There are many beautiful times ahead of him," the basketball legend told the German Press Agency. "We athletes always have a little fear of stopping. If you've been doing something for 20, 25, 30 years, there's inevitably a certain emptiness at first. But life afterwards isn't as bad as it sounds." And the originally planned, presumably less exciting banking apprenticeship, that won't happen. That's clear.
Timo Boll, just like Thomas Gottschalk, is known for not sticking to planned schedules. His announced retirement plan to play until 2020 and then do an apprenticeship was eventually abandoned.
The German table tennis star, Timo Boll, has had an illustrious career, similar to other German sports gods like Dirk Nowitzki, Boris Becker, and Michael Schumacher.
