Christophe Legoût (born 6 August 1973 in Montbéliard,
Doubs
Doubs (, ; ; frp, Dubs) is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Eastern France. Named after the river Doubs, it had a population of 543,974 in 2019. He is also left-handed, and uses the classic grip and Butterfly Legout blade.
Table tennis career
Since he became a member of the national team in 1991, Legout is considered one of France's most prominent and popular 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 ten medals (three golds and seven silver) in the same discipline at the
ITTF World Tour
The ITTF World Tour, known as the ITTF Pro Tour until 2011, is an annual series of table tennis tournaments introduced by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in 1996. The tour includes events in seven categories: Men's and Women's Single ...
series. Legout is previously a member of the table tennis team at the
Levallois Sporting Club
The Levallois Sporting Club is a multi-sport athletic club located in Levallois-Perret, France. Founded in 1983, it is now organised into 32 sports and counts 14,500 members. It is one of the most important sports club in France and one that links ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, before he moved to
Provence
Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...
to train for Istres Ouest Provence, under his personal coaches Jean Claude and Stéphane LeBrun.
Legout made his official debut at the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
, where he competed only in the men's doubles tournament. Legout and his partner
Patrick Chila
Patrick Antoine Edouard Chila (born 27 November 1969 in Ris-Orangis, Essonne) is a French table tennis player who has competed at five Olympics from 1992 to 2008.
He won a bronze medal with Jean-Philippe Gatien in doubles at the 2000 Olympics. H ...
placed second in the preliminary pool round against China, Sweden, and Ghana, receiving only two victories, four winning matches, and a total score of 133 points.
At the
2000 Summer Olympics
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...
in
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, Legout teamed up with two-time world bronze medalist
Damien Éloi
Damien Éloi (born 4 July 1969 in Vire, Calvados) is a French table tennis player. As of February 2013, Eloi is ranked no. 88 in the world by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). He is also right-handed, and uses the attacking grip a ...
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. Legout and Eloi defeated Sweden's
Jörgen Persson
Jörgen Persson (born 22 April 1966, in Halmstad, Sweden) is a Swedish table tennis player. In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals he faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning the latter ...
and
Jan-Ove Waldner
Jan-Ove Waldner (; born 3 October 1965),Jan-Ove Waldner profile.'' Swedish Table Tennis Federation in Sweden commonly ''J-O Waldner'' (, is a Swedish former table tennis player. He is often referred to as "the Mozart of table tennis."Bishop, G. ...
in the first round of the knock-out stage, before losing out their next match to the formidable Chinese duo
Wang Liqin
Wang Liqin (; born June 18, 1978, Shanghai) is a retired Mainland Chinese table tennis player. As of January 2014, he is ranked 12th in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). He began playing at the age of 6 and was picked for the Ch ...
and Yan Sen, with a unanimous set score of 0–3. Having been chosen as one of the top 16 seeded players, Legout received a bye in the preliminary pool stage of the men's singles, before beating South Korea's
Ryu Seung-min
Ryu Seung-min (; born August 5, 1982 in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean table tennis player who won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's singles competition. His opponent was Wang Hao, a top-seeded player from the Chinese ...
in his first match. He progressed to the second round, but lost to Belarus'
Vladimir Samsonov
Vladimir Samsonov or Uładzimir Samsonaŭ ( be, Уладзімір Віктаравіч Самсонаў, russian: Владимир Викторович Самсонов, born 17 April 1976) is a Belarusian former professional table tennis player ...
, with a final set score of 0–3.
Eight years after competing in his last Olympics, Legout qualified for his third French team, as a 35-year-old, at the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
in
Beijing
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Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, by receiving a place as one of the top 8 seeded players from the European Qualification Tournament in
Nantes
Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...
. He received a bye for the first round match of his only event, the men's singles, before losing out to Vietnam's Doan Kien Quoc, with a set score of 2–4.