Clubs around the country have testified that Sweden was hit by table tennis fever following Truls Möregårdh's silver in the singles tournament and the men's national team's second place in the team event at the Olympic Games in Paris last summer.
However, the late winter has mainly been about dark headlines, but now the conflict between the Jerring Prize winner and the Swedish Table Tennis Association is over.
Older brother Malte Möregårdh gets to accompany the upcoming World Championship in Doha, Qatar, as a private coach to the Swedish world number seven. A solution that also applies to the future.
It's great, of course. That was our hope, says Truls Möregårdh when he and dad Carl receive in Blomsterbergshallen in Skåne's Eslöv.
"Felt pretty reasonable"
It wasn't entirely crazy what we asked for. It felt pretty reasonable. I myself think I'm doing fantastically for Swedish table tennis, and I'd like to be an ambassador.
The family's hope was that the association would see it the same way and make an effort on his setup. As far as Möregårdh knows, he is the only one on the men's national team who wants a different coaching solution.
The other guys are satisfied with everything. I wasn't, and I felt that I deserved to have my coach at some tournament. It wasn't actually that much to ask if I'm being completely honest.
The conflict became known after an article in Skånska Dagbladet in February, where dad Carl Möregårdh said that the association's sports leadership "counteracted" the family when they wanted Malte Möregårdh as coach to a greater extent at competitions.
Association: "Planned attack"
The only thing we've done is to go out and say in an article that we think this would be good, says Carl Möregårdh and continues:
Everything else is just pure consequences of what others have said and done.
In the spring, the association's leadership went out with an open letter to the table tennis districts that "what's happening is nothing other than a planned attack that's unfolding before our eyes" and that employees have been subjected to "direct threats and harassment".
The association has not wanted to say who or who is behind it all.
It would have been interesting to hear where the threats and attack come from. I think everyone would have benefited from hearing that, says Carl Möregårdh, who, among other things, handles his son's contacts with sponsors.
Coach for four years
Brother Malte has been Truls Möregårdh's coach full-time for four years now. With him as match coach, the table tennis star gets a sense of security – it's the brother who follows him day in and day out in everyday life.
In the end, the association has realized – realized that it's best for me, says the 23-year-old.
This weekend, the World Championship starts, and Truls Möregårdh has been able to shut out everything that's happened outside the table tennis hall during the spring.
I haven't wasted any extra time on it. It would ruin my table tennis, and I would never do that, he says.
In February, it emerged that the Swedish Table Tennis Association and Truls Möregårdh were in a conflict.
The main issue, according to the association, was that Möregårdh wants a different coaching solution even at competitions designated as national team competitions.
In March, it was also announced that Tobias Bergman would resign as national team captain for the women's and men's teams.
After all the reporting, association chairman Dennis Lindahl and secretary-general Thomas Buza sent a letter to the table tennis districts.
The association wrote in the letter – dated March 19 – that "what's happening is nothing other than a planned attack that's unfolding before our eyes".
"I don't want to say more than that we know roughly what's behind this", said Thomas Buza to TT in April and continued:
"It's so many things that have happened roughly at the same time, so we don't see that it's anything other than that there are those who want to put spokes in the wheel, and I don't know why", said Buza without going further into who "they" refer to.
In the letter, Lindahl and Buza also wrote that family members of people within the association have been affected by what's happening "through both direct threats and harassment". Buza did not want to answer whether any police report had been made.
Born: February 16, 2002.
Occupation: Table tennis player.
Lives: Malmö.
World ranking: Seventh.
Main merits: World Championship silver in singles, Olympic Games silver in singles, and Olympic Games silver in team 2024.
Other: Voted by the Swedish people to win the Jerring Prize 2024.
Current: Playing the World Table Tennis Championship in Doha, Qatar, taking place May 17-25. Möregårdh plays doubles with Anton Källberg on Saturday against Marcos Madrid/Rogelio Castro, Mexico, and enters the singles tournament on Sunday against Andreas Levenko, Austria.
