The 11-year-old boy who beats adults to become champion

BarcelonaAt eleven years old, he's become accustomed to defeating adults. What seems extraordinary is now normal in the life of young Ladimir Mayorov, a TT Cassà paddler who has just made history. Mayorov, world number 1 in the under-thirteen category, has been crowned Spanish junior table tennis champion in La Nucía (Alicante). The player, who lives in Calella, should be competing in tournaments in the junior category, given his age. But he realized some time ago that he could face older players, so he asked not to play in these championships as a junior. Nor as a child. Nor as a cadet. He wanted to do it in the junior category. And so it was, and in fact, he won, defeating older players along the way. In the final, Mayorov defeated Andalusian Martin Reche by three sets to zero. A young player who defeats boys of seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen.

But for years now, Mayorov has been asking to step up and face older players. This sport runs in his blood, as both his parents arrived in Catalonia in 2000 to practice it. His father, Eduardo, was an international capped for the Soviet Union and later for the Ukrainian national team, having been born in Kiev. His mother, Svetlana, was a European team champion with Russia. A love story between two people who suffer from everything that happens in their former homeland, he a native of Ukraine and she a native of Russia. Thanks to sport, they competed in Catalan clubs and put down roots. And now they enjoy it with their son, who never ceases to amaze him. Ladimir is on a scholarship and already spends hours at the Sant Cugat High Performance Center under the watchful eye of both of them, who act as coaches. At the CAR, you see young people of all ages entering, but what stands out is this little boy who goes to school in Calella and then arrives with his parents to train at the facilities where former Olympic paddlers train.

His father, a rival

Ladimir started playing when he was barely a foot off the ground. At eight years old, he began competing against fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds and defeated them. With TT Cassà, he was already being called up to the first team at nine, which led to a surprising situation in 2023, when his father faced his son. Eduard continues to play, in addition to coaching. He does so for CTT Els Amics Terrassa, and they earned a promotion against Cassà. "It was a somewhat awkward situation, but fortunately they also got promoted during the previous retirement," he explains. Normally, the father coaches his son at home and also with the national team, but at the club level, they are officially rivals. His mother coaches him at TT Cassà. It's all table tennis, a family sport.

Ladimir is managing to handle the pressure of already being famous on the circuit well and this year he has won the U-13 tournament held in Linz, as well as the Croatia Open, the WTT Cappadocia in Turkey and the WTT Youth Contender Berlin 2025 tournaments. With the TT play-off to achieve promotion to the National Table Tennis Honor Division, but they narrowly missed out on what would have been their second promotion in two years. He competed well in qualifying rounds, where he could face off against players twenty years his senior. To continue growing, Mayorov has also signed with the Compass Foundation's sports team, linked to the prestigious German club Ochsenhausen, which works with the Spanish Federation to create an ideal environment for young talents like him to improve. At around the age of twelve, Ladimir continues to make history.