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 o ...

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

) 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 Sport governing body, governing body for all national table tennis associations that use ITTF-approved sponge table tennis rackets. The role of the ITTF includes overseeing rules and regula ...

(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, 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. 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 in four Olympics Games from 1988 to 2000, winning silver in the singles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and bronze in doubles (wi ...

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

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

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 is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, and in

Manchester, England Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, 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 lin ...

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

Chartres Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

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

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

, 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 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 ...

, 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 Germany, 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 t ...

and

Steffen Fetzner Steffen Fetzner is a male former table tennis player from Germany. From 1989 to 2000 he won several medals in doubles, and team events in the Table Tennis European Championships, in the World Table Tennis Championships, and in the Table Tennis W ...

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, 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 ...

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 ...

, Eloi teamed up with new partner

Christophe Legoût Christophe Legoût (born 6 August 1973 in Montbéliard, Doubs) is a French table tennis player. 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 19 ...

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. Eloi and Legout 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. 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 Lee Chul-Seung (; born June 29, 1972) is a male former table tennis player from South Korea. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona he won the bronze medal in the men's doubles this time together with Kang Hee-Chan. Four years later he won t ...

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 people, Chinese table tennis player. He is the first Chinese male player to achieve a career grand slam of three majors (Olympic Games, World Cup, World Championships). He is considered ...

, 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 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 ...

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 an allocated spot from the Final World Qualification Tournament in

Budapest, Hungary Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He defeated Egypt's

Ahmed Saleh Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh al-Ahmar (; 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 Republican Guard unit of the Yemeni Army. On April 14, 2015, t ...

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 and Olympic champion. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17. He has the distinction of being the first male singles titlist to achieve five consecutive national championship ...

, 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 for 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 20th-century French sportsmen