Table Tennis aka Ping pong is a racket game played with a small plastic ball with either 2 or 4 players where player hit the ball back and forth across the table. This is also a mini version of Lawn Tennis.
Table Tennis is relatively new game which was played by Britishers in 1881. He used a dining table and filed a set of books at the middle of the table. He knitted web into a cork ball from wine bottle and used cigar boxes cover as a racket. In 1901, the game was also known as “whiff- whaff”, “flim-fam” and “gossima” which were the trade names of balls given by the Jacques and son, Parker brothers who are the manufacturers of sporting goods. Later, the game was named “ping- pong”, derived from the sound made by the ball when it hits the racket and table. In 1903, Arnold Parker, a champion table tennis player formulated the first law in table tennis. The game lost its popularity in 1904 because the cost of the racket and the ball went high. When it regained its popularity in 1922, different national associations were formed in 1926, one of which was the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) which was established in Berlin. Its main objective was to formulate laws in table tennis, and sees to it that the game is played as a contest for human skills,, and the constant change in the equipment are being disseminated and strictly followed by all. Table Tennis became the number one racket game in China, Japan And United States. Early years of international competitions were dominated by European countries and is the major sport in England, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In the Philippines, it also fast becoming a popular sport. It is now included as one of the events in athletic sports meets.
Timeline of Table Tennis Milestones
•1800: Adaptation of lawn tennis to dinning table with improvised equipment•1890: Several patents registered in England and the USA, manufactured sets produced under trade names such as Gossima and Indoor Tennis with Lawn Tennis style rules.•1900: Introduction of celluloid balls to replace rubber and cork ones. The celluloid ball had the perfect bounce and game became huge success.•1901: Table Tennis Association and rival Ping Pong Association formed in England•1903: First book on Table Tennis published. The game introduced in china via western settlement•1904: Ping Pong craze fades , some pockets of popularity in Eastern Europe continued.•1922: Revival of the game in Europe, through laws varied Establishment of standard laws of Game in England.•1926: International Table Tennis Federation(ITTF) initiated in Berlin . First World Championships held in England. Ivor Montagu (Eng) elected as first president(Chairmen)•1920-1950: Classic Hard Bat era (European Dominance)•1926-1931: Maria Mednyanszky (HUN) wins the World Championship five times consecutively.•1930 – 1935: Victor Barna (HUN)becomes five times world champion and is runner-up 1931 losing the final against his compatriot Miklos Szabados. Barnawins a record 22 gold medals at world championships during his career, 40 medals overall•1936: Tenth World Championships held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The longest rally took place, the first point taking over two hours•1939: First continental association formed: South America First World Championship held outside Europe: Cairo, Egypt•1950: –1955 Angelica Rozeanu-Adelstein(ROU) wins the World Championships six times in a row and is the last non Asian to win the female singles title until today•1950s –1970s Age of Sponge Bat and Technology (Beginning of Asian Dominance)•1952: Nineteenth World Championships held in Bombay, India The first to be staged in Asia and Japan’s entry to the international scene Hiroji Satoh (JPN)became the first player to win a World Championship when using a racket covered with thick sponge and is the first non-European winner Inauguration of the Asian Federation & First Asian Federation Championships•1953: China entered the World Championships for the first time•1954: Ichiro Ogimura(JPN)is the epitome of Japanese dominance with technological development and physical training•1956: Tomie Okada-Okawa(JPN)is the first female player from Asia to win the World Championships and stops the European reign on world’s female table tennis.•1957: World Championship changes to a two-year cycle•1958: First European Championships, Budapest, Hungary. The USSR made their entry to the international scene•1959: Rong Guotuan (CHN)is the first Chinese world champion in any sport Racket standardization laws enacted•1962: First All-Africa Championships, Alexandria, Egypt•1967: Ivor Montagu retired as President of the ITTF after forty years in office•1971: First Commonwealth Championships held in Singapore Ping Pong Diplomacy: table tennis played an important role in international diplomacy when several teams were invited to China for a series of friendship matches after the 1971 World Championships. Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai: “Your visit to China has opened the door for people-to-people exchanges between China and the USA.” 1971 Stellan Bengtsson(SWE)wins the men’s singles title and heralds the start of three decades of Swedish influence, with top players such as KjellJohansson, Mikael Appelgren, Erik Lindh, Jan-OveWaldner, JörgenPersson, and Peter Karlsson.•1973: First World University Championships held in Hanover, Germany•1977: ITTF received formal declaration of its recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)•1979: First European Championships for Paraplegics (wheelchair players) held in Stoke Mandeville, England•1980: First World Cup held in Hong Kong•1981: World Championships held in Nova Sad, Yugoslavia. Total triumph for China, whose athletes win all of the seven gold medals Table tennis admitted to the Olympic program (84th session IOC)•1982: First World Veterans’ Championships held in Gothenburg, Sweden. .First World Championships for the disabled held in Stoke Mandeville, England•1985: European Youth Championships held in The Hague, Holland Modern Olympics Era (Chinese Reign with few exceptions)•1988: For the very first time, table tennis was featured in the Olympic Games that were held in Seoul, South Korea•1992: Former World champion, Jan-Ove Waldner (SWE) became Olympic singles champion and reputedly, the first table tennis millionaire•1995: World Championships held in Tianjin, China. Total triumph for China for the second time, winning seven gold medals•1996: Beginning of the ITTF Pro Tour, with events taking place all around the world •2000: After the Olympics in Sydney, the ball size is increased to 40mm for improved television viewing•2001: Game score changed from 21 to 11 points World Championships held in Osaka, Japan. Total triumph for China for the third time, winning all of the seven gold medals 2002 Implementation of the ITTF World Junior Circuit (U18) and World Cadet Challenge (U15 continental team competition) 2003 First ITTF World Junior Championships in Santiago, Chile Team Championships separated from individual events, held in alternate years•2004: During the Olympic Games in Athens, Table Tennis ranked 5th among all sports for television viewing audience•2005: World Championships held in Shanghai, China. Total triumph again for China, winning all of the five gold medals•2006: World Championships held in Bremen, Germany. The Chinese athletes complete the collection with two gold medals in the team events•2007: World Championships held in Zagreb, Croatia. Total triumph number five for China, winning all of the five gold medals First appearance of table tennis as a compulsory sport at the Universiadein Bangkok, Thailand•2008: China sweeps the Team championships in Guangzhou China wins all the Gold at the Beijing Olympic Games•2010: Table tennis is part of the first Youth Olympic Games•2011: World Table Tennis Championships was held at the Ahoy indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands•2012: was a big year for sport in general and for table tennis events in particular. This year saw the quadrennial Olympic Games taking place in London, England•2014: World Team Table Tennis Championships in Japan Tokyo. The official material used in table tennis balls was changed from celluloid to plastic•2016: Summer Olympics in Brazil Rio de Janeiro at the Riocentro•2017: World Table Tennis Championships in Germany Düsseldorf
