Benedek Oláh
Finnish table tennis player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benedek Márton Oláh (born 29 March 1991) is a Finnish table tennis player.[3][4] He is the first Finnish Olympian in table tennis competition.[5]
Oláh was named the Finnish Player by the Year by the Association of Sports Journalists for 16 years in a row.[6]
Early life
Career
In 2016, Oláh won an ITTF World Tour title in men's singles at the Nigeria Open.[9] He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the men's singles event, in which he was eliminated in the second round by Jonathan Groth.[1][10] From this, he made history as the first Finnish Olympian to participate in the table tennis competition.
2021
Benedek entered WTT Doha 2021 with a world rank of 85. He upset world ranked 69 Chen Chien-an in the second round of the qualifying draw in the WTT Contender event.[11] Benedek would lose to world-ranked number 144 Andreas Levenko in the next round; however, Levenko would go on to have a highly successful tournament, including an upset of world ranked number 15 Liam Pitchford.[12]
Major League Table Tennis
In 2024, Oláh joined Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), the first professional table tennis league in the United States. He was selected by the Princeton Revolution as a first-round pick in the 2024 MLTT draft.[13] Competing in the Eastern Conference, Oláh became the lead player for the Revolution, known for his signature backhand and high winning percentage in singles matches.[14]
He is a 29-time Finnish national table tennis champion – 12-time champion in singles and 6-time champion in mixed doubles.[15]
