On July 8, Beijing time, Vladimir Samsonov, a legendary figure in Belarusian and world table tennis, announced his retirement. Just before that, Samsonov had just announced his retirement from the Tokyo Olympics. Samsonov, 45, has played against five generations of national table tennis.
Table tennis evergreen, synonymous with Waldner
A player born in 1976, Samsonov was known as the "Three European Tigers" alongside Valdenell and Primorats in his early years, and has been a major opponent in national table tennis since his debut in 1995. From winning the men's doubles runner-up of the World Table Tennis Championships in 1995, Samsonov has been honored continuously, including the men's singles championship at the 2009 Table Tennis World Cup, and in the eyes of many Chinese fans, he and Waldner are on a par with Waldner.
He has played against 5 generations of national table tennis
Samsonov once played with 5 generations of national table tennis, when he first debuted, he mainly faced Kong Linghui Liu Guoliang, and then the opponent became Wang Liqin Ma Lin, and then became Wang Hao Chen Xuan, etc., and then zhang Jike Malong Xu Xin, and also had a confrontation with Fan Zhendong Wang Chuqin, the representative of the new generation of the mesozoic generation of national table tennis. It should be said that Samsonov's name is already a memory of the Chinese table tennis team.
The transformation has been completed
In fact, Samsonov has completed the transformation, he is a brother of the ITTF Athletes' Committee, but also the deputy head of the European Table Tennis Federation, if there is no accident, Samsonov will not leave table tennis in the future, but will not participate in the competition again. In fact, withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics, Samsonov had ended all his dreams. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Samsonov successfully advanced to the semi-finals, but finally won the fourth place, rubbing shoulders with the medal, which became his last regret.