About Jan-Ove Waldner
Jan-Ove Waldner (Swedish: [ˈjɑːn uːvɛ ˈvǎldnɛr]; born 3 October 1965), in Sweden commonly J-O Waldner or simply mononymously as J-O (Swedish: [ˈjîː.(j)uː]), is a Swedish former professional table tennis player. He is often referred to as "the Mozart of table tennis." A sporting legend in his native Sweden as well as in China, he is known in China as 老瓦 Lǎo Wǎ 'Old Wa' or 常青树 Cháng Qīng Shù 'Evergreen Tree', because of his extraordinary longevity and competitiveness. == Biography == Jan-Ove Waldner was born in Stockholm on 3 October 1965. His athletic potential was recognised at an early age and was displayed in 1982 when, as a 16-year-old, he reached the final of the European Championships, losing to distinguished left-handed teammate Mikael Appelgren, who was perceived then as the logical successor to the first Swedish World Champion, Stellan Bengtsson. While still developing his game, Waldner, along with several other Swedish players, traveled to a national-level training camp held in China, and was reportedly amazed by the dedication and solidarity of the Chinese players. He has claimed ever since that he learned much during his stay, and thereafter first began to regard his opportunity to succeed in table tennis as paramount. Waldner won the gold medal in the men's singles at 1992 Summer Olympics, becoming the first and to date only player not from China, Japan, or South Korea to win an Olympic table tennis title. Eight years later, he won silver in the same event at the 2000 Summer Olympics, narrowly losing to Kong Linghui. Along with Mikael Appelgren, Erik Lindh, Jörgen Persson, Peter Karlsson and Fredrik Håkansson (in Kuala Lumpur in 2000), he never finished worse than second in the World Team Championship discipline except on a single occasion. In fact, the team (Waldner with the former 4) consecutively won the Swaythling Cup in 1989-1993 for 3 times and won it again in 2000 with the latter 3.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.