An Olympic sport since Seoul 1988,
table tennis was once considered a genteel, after-dinner alternative to lawn tennis, in
1890s England.
It's now fast and furious with high toss serves, top-spins, chops,
chop blocks, loops and putaway shots that are smashed across the net with more speed than
cars are allowed to drive on the motorway. Even the type of glue used on the bat has a lot
to do with how the ball will play and how fast it will travel.
Introduced to the Olympic fold in South Korea, the dominating force in
Olympic table-tennis has been the Chinese, followed closely by the South Koreans.
There are four gold medals available in Olympic table-tennis: mens
and womens singles and doubles.
Matches are the best of seven; the first to win four games..
Table Tennis Singles
The top 16 seeds proceed directly to the main draw, while another 48
players enter a qualification round; where 16 advance to meet the top seeds.
The main draw is a single-elimination tournament with the semi-final
winners playing each other for the gold and silver medals, while the semi-final losers
play-off for the bronze.
Table Tennis Doubles
Same format as the singles, with 32 teams.
Glossary
of Table Tennis Terms:
Loopers, blockers, hitters and choppers all out for the kill.
Yaping Deng,
of China, ruled women's table tennis in the early nineties; winning gold medals in both
the women's singles and doubles events at the Barcelona
1992 and Atlanta 1996 Olympic games.
             
      
     
ITTF:
11 Chemin de la Roche, 1020 Renens, Switzerland.
The International Table Tennis Federation.
National Table Tennis Federations
Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation.
English Table Tennis
Association:
The English Table Tennis Association is the national governing body for table tennis in
England.
Oceania Table Tennis Federation:
The Oceania Table Tennis Federation was formed on the 1st June 1977. Foundation members of
the OTTF were New Zealand, Australia, Guam, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Caledonia and
Tahiti.
Singapore Table Tennis Association:
With STTA's humble beginnings in 1965, the association has seen numerous competitions and
championships ranging from local to regional events, notably the Commonwealth Table Tennis
Championships, Asian Table Tennis Championships, South East Asian Games (table tennis
events) just to name a few.
South African Table Tennis:
In 1991, the South African Table Tennis Board (formed 1948) and the South African Table
Tennis Union (formed 1939) united into one controlling body for Table Tennis in South
Africa.
Table Tennis Australia:
The National Championships are rotated around the states of Australia.
Table Tennis Canada:
The Canadian Table Tennis Association.
Table Tennis Federation of India:
Founded in Calcutta in 1935, the Bengal Table Tennis Association was the first table
tennis organisation in India.
USA Table Tennis:
The national governing body for the Olympic sport of table tennis in the United States.
General Table Tennis Links
Canupnet Table
Tennis Links:
Terry Canup has collected thousands of table tennis links.
Table Tennis Museum:
Plenty of images showing the development of table tennis and a gallery of past champions.
Table
Tennis.
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