Truls Möregårdh: Sweden's rising table tennis star living out a "fairytale"
The 21-year-old Swede has taken the world by storm since remarkably winning World Championships silver in 2021 – and has gained nearly 100 places in the world rankings in the last two years.
Table Tennis
Truls Möregårdh is fully aware of his remarkable rise through the table tennis ranks.
The 21-year-old currently sits seventh in the world, a remarkable climb for a man who was ranked 103rd in March 2021.
It's a trajectory that even the Swede, speaking last year to the European Table Tennis Union, described as a "fairytale" – helped by a record-setting appearance in the final of the 2021 World Championships in the United States.
He entered that event ranked 77th in the world and stunned the field to make the championship match where he lost to Fan Zhendong – but in doing so became the lowest-ranked player to reach a World Championship men's final.
"A lot of things have changed after Houston," Möregårdh said then to the ETTU. "It was a crazy tournament and a crazy experience that I will always look back to as a beautiful fairytale."
In doing so, Möregårdh joined a list of illustrious Swedes to have reached the World Championships singles final: one that features Tage Filsberg, Kjell Johansson, Stellan Bengtsson, Jan-Ove Waldner, Jörgen Persson, and just two years earlier in 2019, Mattias Falck.
His stock has only continued to rise since, as he has built on that success to crack the world top 10, peaking at a career-best third for a week last October.
Truls Möregårdh: A marked man now?
Being the reigning world silver medallist has its upsides, but there is another aspect of his rapid improvement that has followed Möregårdh.
And that is the fact that he is no longer an outsider trying to cause an upset, but instead is one of the marked men others are trying to knock off.
"It still feels strange," he told ETTU. "Everything has happened really fast for me in the ranking after World Championship and it’s really cool to be on top of Europe in the ranking of course… I don't see myself as a favourite."
Indeed, many other players are quite capable of challenging the established stranglehold of the People's Republic of China. In recent times, Germany have produced strong players, and from within Europe the rise of the Lebrun brothers is also catching eyes.
Truls Möregårdh: His start in table tennis and dropping out of school
The Hovmantorp native took up the sport at six years old because he was following his older brother Malte – now his coach – to training sessions at the local club. "It's always very fun," Möregårdh said last year of working with his brother ahead of the European Championships. "You feel very safe with him… I've known him my entire life; (it's) worked very well for a long time.”
When the time came for the young Truls to choose between tennis, football, and table tennis, one sport won the race. And table tennis can be grateful that it did, as Möregårdh has broken barriers at nearly every level of the sport. In 2016, aged just 14, he became the youngest man to play in the ETTU Champions League in an early marker of what was to come. Three years later, Möregårdh was already playing abroad in the Japanese top league.
However, following his passion to become a full-time table tennis player has required sacrifices, including dropping out of school aged 16 after completing his required studies through ninth grade under Swedish law – with full backing from his family.
"It was a tough time in school because I was away so much," he revealed. "You have to devote a lot of time to table tennis if you want to be really good at it.
"I went professional at a very young age. And I'm very happy about that decision now."
However, that doesn't mean it's all about sport for the 21-year-old. For his 20th birthday, his friends gifted him a record player, which he uses to play old music as a means of relaxing away from the court.
Truls Möregårdh's training style and table tennis idols
Even as a cadet and junior, Möregårdh took the decision to train against senior players.
In an interview with his equipment sponsors, the Swede said: "I train hard and think a lot. When I don't make a good shot, I think about why it wasn't good and try to change it."
This he cites as being inspired by two of his countrymen who came before him and shook up the table tennis world: Waldner and Persson.
Additionally, his stint in the Japanese league has shaped how he approaches his craft. "It is a completely different training culture than in Sweden and very instructive to experience how the best in the world train – in terms of focus, fitness at the table, speed and tactics," he explained.
Aside from Waldner and Persson, there is one man – European and German legend Timo Boll, who remains an active player aged 42 – who has helped Möregårdh hone his style.
"I've had a few role models and I think that's very important for table tennis players, because you can learn a lot from watching them. I've always looked up to Timo Boll," the Swede revealed ahead of last year's European Championships.
It was doubly special, therefore, that Möregårdh would get to face – and defeat – Boll in Houston en route to worlds silver in 2021.
"It's a little bit strange when you've always looked up to a person and you always wanted to practise with him suddenly you play him in such big matches," he admitted.