(by Steve Hopkins)
Truls Moregardh has won the 2024 Jerring Award. The prize is a long-standing sports award in Sweden that is awarded to the best athlete as judged by the radio audience of Radiosporten. Table tennis has long been one of the most post popular sports in Sweden, but this is the first time the award has gone to a table tennis player.
Most years, the “people’s choice” for best athlete goes to a skier (17 of the 45 awards have gone to cross country, alpine ski, ski jump, or biathlon), equestrian, soccer, or golf. This is a little surprising in that during this period Sweden won a team world championship, an individual world championship, an Olympic gold and silver, and had a player achieve World No. 1. Adding a little detail, in 1989 and 1997 when Waldner won his World Championships, the Jerring Awards went to Jan Boklov a Ski Jumper who won the World Cup that year and Magdalena Forsberg who dominated the sport of Biathlon, and in 1992 when Waldner won Olympic Gold the award went to Alpine Ski Champion Pernilla Wiberg who won two Gold Medals and a World Championship that year.
The 45 year drought for table tennis is over. Truls Moregard had a great year with a Silver Medal and a series of sold performances on the world tour. He was also a part of a Swedish medal in the team event (with Anton Kallberg and Kristian Karlsson). As its a people’s choice award, this may be a sign that table tennis popularity is on the rise again in Sweden. Moregard currently leads the way in the Rankings, but he isn’t the only strong player. Anton Kallberg is World No. 16, and both Mattias Falck and Kristian Karlsson have had runs into the Top 50 in the last year. We can all cheer popular recognition of our sport and athletes – that recognition is amplified in one of the historic powerhouse countries like Sweden.
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