PARIS — “What happened to Felix?” a disappointed fan asked an older man exiting a South Paris arena Friday morning.
“He was just overwhelmed,” the older man said.
Indeed, there was nothing 17-year-old Felix LeBlanc, a rising star with a bright future in this sports-crazed country, could do about it. After being supported by a rapturous crowd all the way to the semifinals, the teenager lost every crucial point in a table tennis match to China's Fan Zhendong, a 2021 Olympic silver medalist 10 years older than him and one of the best players of his generation. Fan overpowered LeBlanc with multiple forehands to the body, taking control midway through the fourth semifinal set and winning in straight sets, 11-8, 11-6, 11-7, 11-5.
Leblanc, who has been a huge star on the table tennis scene with his brother Alexis for the past two years, said he dreams of winning an Olympic Games either this year or in the near future. So was he nervous?
“Not really,” he said after the game. “The fans were better than me in our game.”
The bespectacled Leblanc started playing table tennis at age three, just like his brother, and is a sporting hero, not at the level of Leon Marchand or, certainly, Mbappe or Zidane, but approaching them. Their father, Stephane, was a highly-rated player for France, and their uncle, Christophe Legout, represented France at three Olympic Games.
But Felix has come a long way in the past year and a half. Using a penholder grip on the racquet (hence the name), Leblanc won the 2023 European Games, becoming the youngest player ever to win the title, and reached the quarterfinals of this year's WTT Grand Smash in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is currently ranked No. 5 in the world.
The sellout crowd at the Paris South Arena 4 had been roaring and raving all morning. After the women's semi-final between South Korea's Shin Yu-bin and China's Chen Meng, the PA announcer moved on to the next match, featuring Fan, who has won nine world championship gold medals and 13 medals overall. Fan, ranked fourth in the world, will go on to win the world championships in South Africa in 2023, while Leblanc was eliminated in the third round.
China, of course, has long been a table tennis powerhouse and remains dominated by the legendary Ma Long, regarded by most as the greatest player of all time. (Ma, who beat Fan to win gold in Tokyo in 2021, is the only person to have won five Olympic table tennis gold medals, two in singles and three in the team event, but is only competing in the team event in Paris.) The PA man introduced Fan, and there were fans in the stands cheering him on, but not as many as there were for Leblanc.
Felix Leblanc waves to the crowd after winning the table tennis competition at the Paris Olympics earlier this week. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
“And representing France,” the PA representative said, “…Félix Leblanc.”
And the place became abuzz.
“Falix, Felix,” they sang, clapping rhythmically in between, before bursting into “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien,” an Edith Piaf standard that will be familiar to anyone who's seen the film “Inception.”
LeBlanc took to the field first at 10:58 to thunderous applause, but the fans were ready.
He won every crucial point in every set, including the final three points of the first set when he was tied at 8-8 and hit a powerful forehand to take a lead from a fall behind. He also won the final five points of the second set after being tied at 6-6. He took control late in the third set, winning six of the final nine points. And the fans had their say in the fourth and deciding set as LeBlanc missed shots and the match slipped away.
Speaking through an interpreter, Hwang said the pro-Felix atmosphere didn't bother him much.
“He's very confident in himself and has already adapted a bit to this crowd, that's why,” the interpreter said, “so it doesn't affect him much, he just does his best.”
Fans can look forward to Sunday afternoon's gold medal match against Sweden's Truls Mollegård, who beat Brazil's Hugo Calderano in the other semifinal. Leblanc will face Calderano in the bronze medal match. In a sport where France has rarely been in such good form, that means the home crowd will have one more chance to root for their young star.
“It's great,” Felix said. “The crowd has really pushed me and I'll do my best for them. But yeah, I love playing here, I enjoy it every time. And the village is great too. For me the Olympics has been a dream since I was a little kid and I'm still young. So it's great and I want to keep running here. For now I'm obviously disappointed with the fans, but (I'm happy) with the semi-final here.”
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(Top photo from the Olympic Friday bout between Felix Leblanc and Fan Zhendong: Michael Reeves/Getty Images)
