Great winner, Jacques Secrétin, whose death at 71 was announced on Wednesday, brought table tennis to the fore in France by triumphing in the competition and then in the spectacle.
Secrétin is first of all the longest list of French table tennis, with 17 titles of champion of France between 1966 and 1986, and one of European champion in 1976.
It is above all a show, in a duet with another French champion, Vincent Purkart, which allowed him to drag his mustache in front of an audience unaccustomed to competitions.
The “Secrétin-Purkart show”, concentrated in jokes around a ping-pong table, was so successful that they were approached by a casino in Las Vegas, but Secrétin refused so as not to sacrifice his sporting career.
It will accumulate more than 4,000 performances around the world.
"I managed to convince other people, other disciplines, that table tennis exists"
Jacques Secretin
Born March 18, 1949 in Carvin, in the mining area of northern France, Jacques Secrétin, son of a school principal, has dedicated his whole life to table tennis to which he was introduced as a child - “fell into it, like Obelix ”, he will say.
Very quickly grabbed by the high level, the brilliant left-hander climbed to the top, until the world title in mixed doubles, conquered in 1977 with his compatriot Claude Bergeret.
The success and notoriety of the “child of the ball”, the title of his autobiography, pave the way for Jean-Philippe Gatien, the best Frenchman of the next generation, who will be vice-Olympic champion in Barcelona in 1992. “J 'I managed to convince other people, other disciplines, that table tennis exists, ”he said in 2019. And Secrétin, father of three, has never let go of the rackets.
Until the end of his life, he continued to visit French clubs, initiate young people or hit balls in prisons with inmates.
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Jacques Secrétin, French table tennis pioneer, died at 71
