Montbéliard
Montbéliard (; traditional ) is a town in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France, about from the border with Switzerland. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department.
History
Montbéliard is ...
,
Doubs
Doubs (, ; ; ) 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, was 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 Singl ...
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 lin ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, before he moved to
Provence
Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
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 List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
, 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, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...
in
Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, Legout teamed up with two-time world bronze medalist Damien Éloi 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 dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Northern and Southern dynasties#Southern dynasti ...
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 (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officiall ...
, 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.
Career
In two memorable World Table Tennis Championships finals he faced fellow Swede Jan-Ove Waldner in 1989 and 1991, losing the former and winning th ...
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'' or simply mononymously as ''J-O'' (), is a Swedish former professional table tennis player. He is often referre ...
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) is a Chinese table tennis player. He began playing at the age of 6 and was picked for the Chinese men's national squad in 1993 when he was only 15 years old. He holds three majors (3 World Championships). He ha ...
and
Yan Sen
Yan Sen (阎森; born August 16, 1975) is a retired 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
*1 ...
, 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) is a South 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 national team. ...
in his first match. He progressed to the second round, but lost to Belarus'
Vladimir Samsonov
Vladimir Samsonov or Uładzimir Samsonau (, , born 17 April 1976) is a Belarusian former professional table tennis player. He is known in China as the "Tai Chi Master" because of his superb all-around style, both offensive and defensive.
, 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 officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, by receiving a place as one of the top 8 seeded players from the European Qualification Tournament in
Nantes
Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...
. 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.