Damien Éloi (born 4 July 1969 in

Vire Vire () is a town and a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Vire Normandie. Geography The town is located on the river Vire. Much of it ...

Calvados Calvados (, , ) is a brandy from Normandy in France, made from apples or pears, or from apples with pears. History In France Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known record of Norm ...

) is a French table tennis player. As of February 2013, Eloi is ranked no. 88 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the p ...

(ITTF). He is also right-handed, and uses the attacking grip and Tibhar 4S blade.

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 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. Playing with four-time Olympian

Jean-Philippe Gatien Jean-Philippe Gatien (, born 16 October 1968 in Alès, France) is a retired French table tennis player. He competed at four Olympics from 1988 to 2000, winning silver in the singles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and bronze in doubles (with Patri ...

(1988–2000), Eloi had won two bronze medals in the men's doubles at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1997 World Table Tennis Championships The 1997 World Table Tennis Championships were held in Manchester from April 24 to May 5, 1997. This event was notable as the winner Jan-Ove Waldner won without losing a single set in all matches played, this was the first time that this occurred. ...

, held in

Tianjin, China Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popula ...

, and in

Manchester, England Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, respectively. Eloi 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 ...

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

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

to train for Chartres Table Tennis Sports Association (french: Chartres Association Sportive de Tennis de Table). Eloi made his official debut at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, where he competed only in the men's doubles tournament. Eloi and his partner

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. 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, ...

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 ...

, 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 Jörg Roßkopf (born May 22, 1969 in Dieburg, Hesse) is a former professional German table tennis player who is currently the head coach of the German Men's National Table Tennis Team. As a player, he won the title in Men's Doubles at the 1989 Wo ...

and Steffen Fetzner in the quarterfinal match, receiving a unanimous set score of 0–3. 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 ...

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 ...

, 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 Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties period. ...

and

Pablo Tabachnik Pablo Ariel Tabachnik (born November 20, 1977, in San Juan, Argentina) is an Argentinian table tennis player. He competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), ...

, receiving four winning matches and a total score of 96 points. Eloi and Legout 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 Yan Sen (阎森; born August 16, 1975) is a Chinese table tennis player. Major performances *1996 ITTF Pro Tour Grand Finals - 1st doubles *1997 Yugoslavian Open - 1st doubles *1997 World Championships in Manchester - bronze singles *1998 Asian ...

, with a unanimous set score of 0–3. 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 Liu Guoliang (; born January 10, 1976) is a retired Chinese table tennis player who has won all titles at major world tournaments including World Championships, World Cup and Olympic Games. He is the second man to achieve a career grand slam of ...

, with a final set score of 2–3. 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 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 ...

Beijing } 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 an allocated spot from the Final World Qualification Tournament in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...

. He defeated Egypt's

Ahmed Saleh Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar ( ar, أحمد علي عبد الله صالح الأحمر; born July 25, 1972) is the eldest son of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and was a commander of approximately 80,000 troops of the Republi ...

in the first round of the men's singles tournament, before narrowly losing out his next match to Japan's

Jun Mizutani is a retired Japanese table tennis player. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17. His consecutive singles titles at the national championships from 2007 to 2011 made him the first man to win the event five times in ...

, with a set score of 3–4.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eloi, Damien 1969 births Living people French male table tennis players Table tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players of France People from Vire Mediterranean Games gold medalists for France Competitors at the 2001 Mediterranean Games World Table Tennis Championships medalists Sportspeople from Calvados (department) Mediterranean Games medalists in table tennis