Anders Lind, Danish table tennis player, Denmark; Top-16 world ranking after comeback

From car accident to world top 16, Anders Lind seeks brighter and loftier table tennis heights - inspired by fellow Dane Viktor Axelsen

The Dane was the victim of a car accident in 2021 but remarkably was back playing table tennis just six months later, winning a European Team Championships medal. Now a world top 16 player, he told Olympics.com about his rise - and his respect for his fellow Danish racket sport athlete Axelsen.

Five years ago, Anders Lind would certainly not have expected to be where he is now in the table tennis world. He was more concerned about making it out on the other side of a serious car accident without being paralysed.

Then 22, he was struck by another car, one whose driver had suffered a medical episode at the wheel. “It involved an elderly man who had a heart attack and basically rammed into me and made me also crash at around 100 kilometres per hour (over 60mph),” he told Olympics.com in April.

“I broke my back in three places – of course, not the optimal thing for an athlete.”

The crash in March 2021 ended the young Dane’s dream of qualifying for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 , which took place in August of 2021. Instead, he found himself in hospital hoping his doctors’ prognosis of a 70-per-cent chance of paralysis would not come true.

Ultimately, Lind was able to walk again, although he had to relearn how to do so. Table tennis seemed very far away, though it was never far from his mind. “I had a long, long rest. During that time I missed playing so much.”

That reflection time, however, was much needed. It was a chance for a reset in how he approached his career.

“Before the accident, I was kind of not doing everything I could to improve. I was not appreciating what I had,” he admitted. “And that’s what I feel is the only upside to that [accident], that in the break I had there, it made me realise how lucky I am to be in this position and how much I enjoy playing this sport.

“After that I’ve been slowly improving in this approach I have to this sport.”

Meet Anders Lind, Denmark’s table tennis star and car crash survivor inspired by Viktor Axelsen

Anders Lind is Denmark’s top table tennis player, ranked well inside the world top 16 after a fast rise through the ranks. He tells Olympics.com about being inspired by a fellow Dane, and how he bounced back from a serious car accident in 2021 to win an unlikely European Championships medal.

An incredible comeback - and quick rise up the sport’s ranks

It’s hard to believe that he had picked his table tennis paddle back up just three months into his recovery – and was back playing competitively just six months after the crash.

And not just in any competition. He was at the European Team Table Tennis Championships as part of the Danish team. There, Denmark reached the semi-finals, meaning against the odds Lind had picked up a European Championships bronze medal half a year after breaking his back in three places .

“I beat two players who were top 20 in the world without touching my racket [competitively] for six months. That was my comeback,” he recalled. “It made me believe a lot that I could improve and become a great player.”

Those achievements netted him the “Nothing Is Impossible” Award at Denmark’s annual national sports awards for 2021.

Not even two years later, Lind was proving the surprise package at the 2023 World Championships in South Africa. The Dane, at the time ranked 180th in the world (he had been ranked higher, in the top 100, prior to his accident), reached the quarter-finals in Durban.

He has gone from strength to strength since, cracking the world’s top 16 too with a career best of 12th . It’s been a quick rise over the last three years to make up the 160-or-so places in the world rankings.

“I’m not sure,” he said when asked what has contributed the most to his climb up the rankings. “I think for sure one of them is that I believe in what I think is right. I don’t follow others’ paths, I of course take advice, I think about them, but in the end I will always do what I believe is the best way to do something.

“And my thought process towards most things are a little bit different,” he added. “Of course, sometimes difference can be too much, but sometimes if done correctly it can also be a great asset, a great strength.”

Viktor Axelsen exclusive: Inside the mind of a champion

Two-time badminton Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen has done it all and won it all but how does he go about daily life? And what is the secret to his consistency? “Every day is an exam for me,” the Dane tells us.

Learning from another Danish sporting great: Viktor Axelsen

Denmark has punched above its weight in another racket sport normally dominated by Asia, just like table tennis is: badminton . Through Poul-Erik Høyer ( Atlanta 1996 ) and Viktor Axelsen (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 ), Denmark can boast three Olympic gold medals in that sport.

Axelsen, in particular, has served as a beacon for Lind, who has aspirations of reaching even higher on the World Table Tennis rankings.

“The way he is as an athlete and as a person is definitely something that has inspired me in some areas of my life,” Lind said of his fellow Dane, who announced his injury-enforced retirement from competitive badminton earlier this year.

“I’ve been asked by other news [outlets] like, who is your favourite athlete in the whole world? It’s probably him,” he added. “Because he is so professional and everything he’s done for the last 20 years has been towards one goal. He has stood by it, he has always taken the rough decisions when they were correct even though they didn’t feel good.

“So in that way he’s really an inspiration to every young athlete, not only in Denmark but in the whole world in my opinion.”

With Lind in action next week in Malmö, Sweden – just across the Danish border from Copenhagen – at the WTT Europe Smash - Sweden 2026 , expect a vocal cheering section for the 27-year-old as he seeks his biggest career achievement yet.

Picture by Eng Chin An

Table Tennis | Europe Smash | Malmö | Sweden