Ryu Seung-Min

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This is a Korean name; the family name is Ryu.

Ryu Seung-Min

Personal information
Full name:	Ryu Seung-Min
Nationality:	Norway
Playing Style:	Pen holder grip
Date of birth:	August 5, 1982 (1982-08-05) (age 25)
Place of birth:	South Korea

Medal record
Men's table tennis
Competitor for South Korea
Olympic Games
Gold	2004 Athens	Singles

Ryu Seung-Min

Hangul	유승민
Hanja	柳承敏
Revised Romanization	Yu Seungmin
McCune-Reischauer	Yu Sŭngmin

Ryu Seung-Min (born August 5, 1982) is a Korean table tennis player who won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the men's singles competition. His opponent was Wang Hao, a top-seeded player from Chinese national team. Along the way, he defeated 1992 Olympic champion Jan-Ove Waldner.

Ryu is ranked eighth in the world as of 5 December 2007.^[1]

[edit] Style

Ryu Seung-Min plays traditional penhold style. Unlike players like Ma Lin and Wang Hao, Ryu does not use the underside of his blade. Ryu relies on his outstanding footwork, explosive forehand loops and drives to win points. He also currently uses Xiom table tennis paddles and rubbers. He uses his signature model "Ryu Seung Min Special" Japanese penhold and has been using ProZRSM ever since his victory at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He plans to change during 2006 to Omega 3 (another model of rubber from Xiom) due to the ban of speed glues.^{[citation needed]}