Jean-Michel Saive is a former professional table tennis player from Belgium. Saive competed at seven consecutive Olympics between 1988 and 2012, and he was also a winner in singles at European Championship 1994.
Personal life
Born in Liège, Saive began playing as a small boy. His father was the tenth-ranked Belgian player, and his mother won the Belgian ladies' doubles championships when she was pregnant with him. At the age of thirteen, Saive was the fourth-ranked Belgian player and joined the national team. His younger brotherPhilippe Saive is also a table tennis player.
Career
In 1985 Saive was ranked best player in Belgium, a place which he kept until 2011 without interruption. In 1994 he made it to world number one for 515 days. Jean-Michel Saive won a total of 130 medals in international singles tournaments. Some of his important titles are:
He was also individual world vice champion in 1993, finalist at the World Cup in 1994 and 2003, and he was finalist at the world championship for teams with Belgium in 2001. He competed in seven consecutive Summer Olympic Games, from 1988, when table tennis became an official Olympic sport in Seoul, to 2012 in London. He was honored as the national flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics of 1996 and 2004. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 20 highest ranked ITTF players were to be selected for the Olympics. Saive expected to be selected as he was tied in 20th position together with the Swede Jörgen Persson and there was no rule to decide what to do in case of ties. The ITTF decided they needed to play an extra playoff to determine who got the last spot. However, they refused to play as they agreed they should both get a ticket. The ITTF then recalculated the rankings and placed Persson in 20th position and Saive in 21st. Eventually, Saive did play an extra qualification tournament in Budapest, finishing third and thus qualified for his seventh successive Summer Olympics. Saive and Persson, along with Croatian Zoran Primorac, were the first table tennis players to compete at seven Olympics, having been at all games since the sport was introduced in 1988. His successes made him the best Belgian table tennis player. He is also considered to be one of Belgium's most prolific athletes as he was elected as Sports Personality of the Year in 1991 and 1994. Jean-Michel Saive is known for his victories but also for his sportsmanship. He was awarded the UNESCO World Award of Fair Play in 1989. He is also famous for the funniest table tennis match in history, staged at the Tai-Ben International with good friend and Taiwan player Chuang Chih-Yuan. On 4 December 2015, Saive officially announced his retirement as a player. Saive was narrowly beaten in his first attempt to be elected President of the International Table Tennis Federation in May 2017.
