After the performances of the Lebrun brothers at the Olympic Games, the French Table Tennis Federation must manage the enthusiasm generated by all the young people who want to play it “like Féfé”.
This is also why the Olympic Games are so important. Every four years, the biggest sporting event on the planet shines the spotlight on certain disciplines that are less publicized the rest of the time. And when French athletes shine, it is of great benefit to the sport in question. This is how tricolor table tennis lives,
“Following the Games, the wave is enormous, which is not without posing some problems in the clubsexplains in L’Equipe Mag the president of the French Table Tennis Federation, Gilles Erb. We fluctuate between 25% and 30% nationally. This is a wave that we had anticipated because we also experienced a very strong increase between 2023 and 2024, we went from 211,000 to 228,000 members. We told ourselves that if we succeeded in our Games, this increase would increase. »
The return of the pen holder, that’s the Félix Lebrun effect
This is what we call the Lebrun effect, since the performances of Alexis and Félix during the Olympics are creating vocations. Especially Félix Lebrun, in fact, since his pen holder, which had practically fallen into disuse before coming back into fashion, is very popular among the new fans of “ping”.
“We have a small table at home, but he took advantage of the holidays to play while camping this summer, confides the mother of little Eden, 9 years old, still in L’Equipe Mag. And then, he looked at the Lebrun brothers, which fueled his desire to come here. He used to play football and he wanted to change to ping. He is passionate, who constantly trains himself to do juggling, and learned to play in pen hold on his own, inspired by the videos of Félix Lebrun. » It’s a good model.
