Kristian Gunnar Karlsson (; born 6 August 1991) is a Swedish professional

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 ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player.

Career

Born in

Trollhättan Trollhättan () is the 23rd-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Trollhättan Municipality, Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Göta älv, near the lake Vänern, and has a population of approximately 50,000 in the city proper. It is loc ...

, Västra Götaland, Karlsson started to play table tennis in his hometown club at the age of 8. He remained in Trollhättan until he was 16, subsequently he moved away from home to go to high school. During his high school years Karlsson had 10 training sessions a week. In 2011 he signed to

Halmstad BTK Halmstad BTK is a table tennis club in Halmstad, Sweden. Established on 27 October 1937, the club won the Swedish national men's team championship in 1993 and 2003 and the Swedish women's national team championship in 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996. Jö ...

and began to rose through the ranks quickly. Ranked outside the top 400 in October 2010, Karlsson finished 2011 in the 233rd position, and at the end of 2012 he ranked 129. The year 2012 also marked his first senior success, winning the silver medal at the 2012 Table Tennis European Championships in men's doubles. His performances also attracted French top division side

AS Pontoise-Cergy TT Association sportive de Pontoise-Cergy Tennis de table (commonly abbreviated AS Pontoise-Cergy TT or simply ASPCTT) is a table tennis club based in Pontoise, France. One of the top clubs in the country, it finished runner-up in the French top divi ...

and Karlsson eventually signed to the club in September 2013. He won the Champions League with AS Pontoise-Cergy in 2014. In 2016 Kristian signed for the German top club Borussia Düsseldorf. After coming second in the Champions League and winning the German Cup, Kristian and Borussia Düsseldorf went on to win the triple in 2018. Paired with Mattias Karlsson, Kristian won a bronze medal in men's doubles at the

2016 European Table Tennis Championships The 2016 European Table Tennis Championships were held in Budapest, Hungary from 18–23 October 2016. The competition was held at Tüskecsarnok. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Mixed events Medal table References

{{Europ ...

. And in the 2018 European Table Tennis Championships, again paired with Mattias Karlsson, Kristian won a silver medal in the men's doubles as well as a bronze medal in the men's singles. During 2018 Kristian and the Swedish National Team won a Bronze medal (Team) in the

2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships The 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships were held in Halmstad, Sweden from 29 April to 6 May 2018. The quarterfinal between North Korea and South Korea in the women's tournament did not take place, as the teams choose to continue as a u ...

in Halmstad, and also a gold medal in the Swedish Championship in Helsingborg.

2021

In March, Karlsson played in WTT Doha. In the first WTT Contender event, he made it to the round of 16, where he lost to

Mattias Falck Mattias Falck (; né Karlsson) (born 7 September 1991) is a Swedish table tennis player. Career He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics as part of the Swedish team in the men's team event. Mattias won two medals at the 2016 European Table Tenn ...

. In the second, WTT Star Contender event, Karlsson upset Liam Pitchford in a deuce-in-the-fifth thriller in the round of 32. Karlsson &

won the world championship in men's doubles at the

2021 World Table Tennis Championships The 2021 World Table Tennis Championships was held in Houston, United States from 23 to 29 November. It was the 56th edition of the championships and the first time the competition was held in the United States. Houston became the host by beating ...

becoming the first Swedish duo to win gold since 1991.

2022

On 19 July 2022 he agreed on terms with Greek club

Panathinaikos Panathinaikos Athlitikos Omilos ( el, Παναθηναϊκός Αθλητικός Όμιλος, literally in English: "Panathenaic Athletic Club" or Panathinaikos A.C.), also known simply as Panathinaikós , is a major Greek multi-sport club ba ...

References

External links