Jim Butler

The title of this article is ambiguous. For the American basketball player, see Jimmy Butler .

Jim "Jimmy" Butler (born February 15, 1971 in Iowa City ) is an American table tennis player . He took part in five world championships and two Olympiads until January 2016.

Active time

Jim Butler was considered one of the greatest American talents as early as the 1980s. He has won many youth competitions and was US National Champion in 1990, 1992 and 1993. In 1989 he took part in a world championship for the first time . Since he saw no prospect of performance progress in the USA due to a lack of suitable opponents and training partners, he moved to Sweden, the then table tennis stronghold of the western world, for a few years. Stellan Bengtsson became his coach. As a result, he made it into the top 100 of the ITTF world rankings . In 1991 he won a victory over the then world champion Jan-Ove Waldner .

In the 1990s he took part in the World Championships in 1991 , 1993 and 1995 , but never came close to medal ranks. He also qualified for participation in the singles and doubles competitions of the 1992 Olympic Games and 1996 Olympic Games , where he was eliminated in the opening act. In 1995 he won bronze with the American team in the World Team Cup.

In the mid-1990s, a serious spinal and muscle disease forced him to temporarily break off his active career. The healing process was protracted, and it wasn't until 2011 that he was able to actively play table tennis again. In 2014 he was American champion in singles, in the same year he took part in the 2014 World Cup for teams.

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
United States	North America Championship	1998	Winnipeg	0	Semifinals	silver
United States	North America Championship	1997	Flint	0	silver
United States	North America Championship	1995	South Bend	0	Semifinals
United States	North America Championship	1994	Laval	0	silver			2
United States	North America Championship	1993	Augusta	0	Quarter finals
United States	North America Championship	1992	Ste Hyacinthe	0	silver	silver
United States	North America Championship	1991	Laval	0	Semifinals
United States	Olympic games	1996	Atlanta	United States	immediately excluded	immediately excluded
United States	Olympic games	1992	Barcelona	ESP	immediately excluded	immediately excluded
United States	PAN-American Games	1995	Mar del Plata	ARG	Semifinals			2
United States	PAN-American Games	1991	Havana	CUB	Semifinals			2
United States	PAN-American Games	1987	Indianapolis	United States				2
United States	Pro tour	2013	Las Vegas	United States	last 64
United States	Pro tour	1998	Houston	United States	last 16	Quarter finals
United States	Pro tour	1997	Fort Lauderdale	United States	Rd 1
United States	World Championship	2014	Tokyo	JPN				53
United States	World Championship	1995	Tianjin	CHN	last 64	last 32	last 64	25th
United States	World Championship	1993	Gothenburg	SWE	last 128	last 32	last 128	20th
United States	World Championship	1991	Chiba City	JPN	last 128	last 64	last 32	15th
United States	World Championship	1989	Dortmund	FRG	last 64	last 64	last 64	20th
United States	World cup	1992	Ho Chi Minh City	VIE	9-12 space
United States	WTC World Team Cup	1995	Atlanta	United States				3
United States	WTC World Team Cup	1991	Barcelona	ESP				13
United States	WTC World Team Cup	1990	Hokkaido, Aomori, Niig	JPN				13

literature

• Jan Lüke: An American Dream , tischtennis magazine , 2016/1 pages 32–34

Web links

• Jim Butler in the Sports-Reference database (archived from the original ) (accessed January 9, 2016)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jim Butler Results from the ITTF database on ittf.com (accessed January 9, 2016)