Christophe Legoût (born 6 August 1973 inMontbéliard,Doubs) is a French table tennis player.[3] He is also left-handed, and uses the classic grip and Butterfly Legout blade.[1]
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 theITTF World Tour series.[4][5] Legout is previously a member of the table tennis team at theLevallois Sporting Club inParis, before he moved toProvence to train for Istres Ouest Provence, under his personal coaches Jean Claude and Stéphane Lebrun.[4]
Legout made his official debut at the1996 Summer Olympics inAtlanta, where he competed only in themen's doubles tournament. Legout and his partnerPatrick Chila 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.[6][7]
At the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney, Legout teamed up with two-time world bronze medalistDamien Éloi in themen's doubles tournament, where the French pair placed first in the preliminary pool round against Canada'sJohnny Huang and Kurt Liu, and Argentina'sLiu Song andPablo Tabachnik, receiving four winning matches and a total score of 96 points. Legout and Eloi defeated Sweden'sJörgen Persson andJan-Ove Waldner in the first round of the knock-out stage, before losing out their next match to the formidable Chinese duoWang Liqin andYan Sen, with a unanimous set score of 0–3.[8] Having been chosen as one of the top 16 seeded players, Legout received a bye in the preliminary pool stage of themen's singles, before beating South Korea'sRyu Seung-min in his first match. He progressed to the second round, but lost to Belarus'Vladimir Samsonov, with a final set score of 0–3.[9]
Eight years after competing in his last Olympics, Legout qualified for his third French team, as a 35-year-old, at the2008 Summer Olympics inBeijing, by receiving a place as one of the top 8 seeded players from the European Qualification Tournament inNantes.[10][11] He received a bye for the first round match of his only event, themen's singles, before losing out to Vietnam'sDoan Kien Quoc, with a set score of 2–4.[12][13][14]
France
