Vladimir Samsonov - the star of tennis

Vladimir Samsonov is one of the most famous table tennis players. At the international level, he stands for Belarus.

Childhood and youth

The future star of table tennis was born in the capital of Belarus in 1976. The child grew incredibly active, and the parents decided to give it to one of the sports sections. At that time, the young athlete was only seven years old. The first coach was Alexander Petrovich, who will train him in the future. The boy begins to show his potential at the age of ten. In 1987, he will fall into the Cadet team of the Soviet Union and sent in its composition to the continental championship in the Greek capital. At this tournament, little Volodya will win his first gold awards. Samsonov will perform at the youth and junior level until the age of seventeen, after which the transition to professional sports will take place .

Professional career

In the early nineties one of the German companies offered the Belarusian athlete a contract, and he agreed. Immediately after the conclusion of the agreement, he leaves to live in Germany and continues to develop as a professional athlete. It was in those years that it became clear that table tennis would become a matter of the whole life of Vladimir Viktorovich Samsonov.

Being in Germany, the young sportsman played for a long time for German clubs, and already in 1994 he went to the adult continental championship in the national team. Here he will win his first award at the highest level. Two years later, the Belarusian wins the gold of the European Championship in pairs.

1998 also becomes successful: the athlete conquers the gold of Europe in doubles and singles. Five years later, he again won the gold medal at the European Individual Championships and for the first time in history will lead the team of Belarus to victory in the main tournament of the continent. At the age of twenty-nine, the athlete becomes the three-time winner of the European championships. Vladimir Samsonov was equally successful both in European tournaments and international ones. He is one of the few who managed to win three times at the World Cup. In addition, in his active there is a silver medal of the World Cup.

He is also one of the few athletes who managed to become a party to the five Olympics. The athlete is also famous for being consistently among the ten strongest table tennis players in the world for fifteen years. The first hit in the rating of the best is dated 1996, and the way out of the ten is 2011. At the age of thirty-seven, he again got on the list and stayed there for almost a year and a half.

In thirty-nine years he took part in the tournament, which took place in Qatar and won first place.

Performances at the club level

Vladimir Samsonov is an excellent player in table tennis and at the club level. At the age of eighteen, he spoke at the German Championships. Between 1994 and 2000, he was a player of the Dusseldorf Borussia. During this time I managed to win the national championship three times. In 2000 he moved to Belgium and began to play at the club "Royal Villette". For the team from Charleroi, he performed for eight years and managed to become a five-time champion of the country. In 2008 he leaves for Spain, where he signs a contract with a club from Granada. The playing career on the Iberian peninsula will last only one year, and during this time no trophies will be won. Next year Vladimir Samsonov leaves for Russia, to Orenburg, where he plays for the team "Torch of Gazprom". In the Russian team, the athlete will win the Champions League three times.

Life outside sports

Despite the fact that almost all the time is occupied by competitions and fees, the athlete is an excellent family man. In 2000 he married Natasha Nam. The wife of Vladimir Viktorovich comes from the now defunct Yugoslavia. They have two sons, whose name is Ivan and Victor.

The couple of Samsonovs live in Spain, namely in Granada. Here they decided to stay after Vladimir signed a contract with the Spanish team.

About the athlete's parents little is known, but they are very grateful to Vladimir Samsonov: tennis for him was discovered by them.

Achievements and awards

On the bill of Belarus a huge number of various awards. Few of the current athletes can be compared with him in this regard. Among the greatest achievements of the tennis player are the following:

• Thirteen awards at different levels during the youth career;
• Six gold medals of continental championships;
• The threefold winner of the world cups;
• Seven wins in the Champions League;
• Participation in the five Olympic Games.

Many are surprised that the athlete is not represented to any state award in the Republic of Belarus. This fact is attributed to the fact that he plays a large part of his career abroad, and at home he played only at youth championships.

Heritage

Vladimir Samsonov managed to write a book in which he outlined his thorny path to success, and also described some secrets of his game. This book is called "Table tennis. Technique with Vladimir Samsonov. " It has become incredibly popular among tennis players of all levels: from amateurs to professionals. In the first days of sales, almost all copies were sold out. Helped in writing the book Radivoj Hudec (his friend).

Actually, he is such a legendary sportsman, who continues to please fans with his game at a fairly respectable age. He will forever be remembered by fans as one of the best table tennis players.