Damien Éloi

Damien Éloi (born 4 July 1969 in Vire, Calvados) is a French table tennis player.[3] As of February 2013, Eloi is ranked no. 88 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).[2] He is also right-handed, and uses the attacking grip and Tibhar 4S blade.[1]

Damien Éloi
Damien eloi.
Personal information
NationalityFrench
Born (1969-07-04) 4 July 1969
Vire, Calvados, France
Playing styleRight-handed, attacking[1]
Equipment(s)Tibhar 4S[1]
Highest ranking20 (January 2001)[2]
Current ranking88 (February 2013)[2]
ClubChartres ASTT[1]
Height1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Weight58 kg (128 lb)
Medal record
Men's table tennis
Representing  France
Mediterranean Games
2001 Tunis Singles
World Championships
1997 Manchester Team
1995 Tianjin Doubles
1997 Manchester Doubles
ITTF Pro Tour
1998 Sundsvall Singles
1998 Belgrade Doubles
1999 Bremen Doubles
2002 Cairo Doubles
2004 Wels Doubles
2006 Jeonju Singles
1999 Bremen Singles

Table tennis career

Since he became a member of the national team in 1990, Eloi is considered one of France's top-level table tennis players in its sporting history. He is a multiple-time French champion in both the singles and doubles tournaments, and has won a total of seven medals (one gold, five silver, and one bronze) in the same discipline at the ITTF World Tour series.[4] Playing with four-time Olympian Jean-Philippe Gatien (1988–2000), Eloi had won two bronze medals in the men's doubles at the 1995 and 1997 World Table Tennis Championships, held in Tianjin, China, and in Manchester, England, respectively.[5] Eloi is previously a member of the table tennis team at the Levallois Sporting Club in Paris, before he moved to Chartres to train for Chartres Table Tennis Sports Association (French: Chartres Association Sportive de Tennis de Table).[4]

Eloi made his official debut at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where he competed only in the men's doubles tournament. Eloi and his partner Jean-Philippe Gatien won the preliminary pool round against Poland, Nigeria, and New Zealand, receiving only three victories and a total score of 143 points. The French pair, however, lost the quarterfinal match to the Chinese duo Lü Lin and Wang Tao, with a set score of 1–3.[6][7] At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Eloi and Gatien repeated their position in the men's doubles tournament, when the French pair lost for the second time to former West German duo and Olympic silver medalists Jörg Roßkopf and Steffen Fetzner in the quarterfinal match, receiving a unanimous set score of 0–3.[8][9]

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Eloi teamed up with new partner Christophe Legoût in the men's doubles tournament, where the French pair placed first in the preliminary pool round against Canada's Johnny Huang and Kurt Liu, and Argentina's Liu Song and Pablo Tabachnik, receiving four winning matches and a total score of 96 points. Eloi and Legout defeated Sweden's Jörgen Persson and Jan-Ove Waldner in the first round of the knock-out stage, before losing out their next match to the formidable Chinese duo Wang Liqin and Yan Sen, with a unanimous set score of 0–3.[10] Being chosen as one of the top 16 seeded players, Eloi received a bye in the preliminary pool stage of the men's singles, before beating South Korea's Lee Chul-Seung in his first match. He progressed to the second round, but narrowly lost to China's Liu Guoliang, with a final set score of 2–3.[11]

Eight years after competing in his last Olympics, Eloi qualified for his fourth French team, as a 38-year-old, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, by receiving an allocated spot from the Final World Qualification Tournament in Budapest, Hungary.[12] He defeated Egypt's Ahmed Saleh in the first round of the men's singles tournament, before narrowly losing out his next match to Japan's Jun Mizutani, with a set score of 3–4.[13][14]

References
  1. "ITTF World Player Profile – Damien Éloi". ITTF. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  2. "ITTF World Ranking – Damien Éloi". ITTF. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  3. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Damien Éloi". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  4. "France Olympique Profile – Damien Éloi" (in French). French Olympic Committee. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  5. "Jean-Philippe Gatien nominated Role Model for Youth Olympic Games". Chinese Olympic Committee. 3 February 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  6. "Barcelona 1992 Volume V: Table Tennis – Men's Doubles" (PDF). Barcelona 1992. LA84 Foundation. p. 410. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2010. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  7. "1992 Olympic Games (Barcelona): Men's Doubles Quarterfinal". ITTF. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  8. "1996 Olympic Games (Atlanta): Men's Doubles Quarterfinal". ITTF. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  9. "Atlanta 1996 Volume III: Table Tennis – Men's Doubles" (PDF). Atlanta 1996. LA84 Foundation. p. 384. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  10. "Sydney 2000: Table Tennis – Men's Doubles" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 68–70. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  11. "Sydney 2000: Table Tennis – Men's Singles" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. pp. 54–57. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  12. "Players Qualified for the Olympic Games" (PDF). ITTF. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 August 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  13. "Men's Singles Second Round". NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 21 August 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  14. "Tennis: Frenchmen suffer unexpected defeat in men's singles". Xinhua News Agency. People's Daily Online. 20 August 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
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