Jörgen Persson has made history like scarcely any other table tennis player world-wide. Over three decades he has continuously qualified for the Olympic Games, and where his last appearance, the sixth, was the most impressive of all.

He wanted to win a medal! With this high, apparently impossible ambition, he started out for Beijing at the age of 41. However, it soon became very clear that, for Jörgen Persson nothing is impossible. Careful preparation, optimum equipment (DONIC SONEX JP rubber sheets and his PERSSON POWERCARBON blade), his long experience, but above all his firm belief that he could reach his goal: Everything was just right, and thus Jörgen Persson became a hero in Beijing. Until the semi-final he played as though on another plane, most of the time trance-like, with sleepwalking certainty. The reporters were ecstatic about his sensational performance, he was surrounded continuously by cameras and fans. Although he only reached fourth place, this was a further milestone in his unique international career, which he ended at the WTTC in May 2009 – in the Japanese Yokohama, not far from Chiba, where he first became Men’s Singles World Champion in 1991. “That was a good point to stop. Here the circle was completed”, explained a satisfied Persson.

The Chinese head coach Liu Guoliang announced respectfully: “Our young players can learn a lot from him.”

This applies to table tennis players worldwide, but the most important message Jörgen Persson gave was:

Pursue your goal!

PS: However, we don’t have to do without Jörgen completely: In the coming season he again will play for his new/old club, the DONIC club SV Plüderhausen in the European Champions League and the German Bundesliga.