China dominates the world of table tennis. However, it is not in the Asian country that this sport was invented. Discover its country of origin.
Will the Lebrun brothers or Simon Gauzy have a chance to upset the Chinese supremacy in table tennis at the Paris 2024 Olympics? At home, the three French players will be keen to do well in this sport that is less popular than the one that inspired it, tennis. And contrary to what one might believe, ping-pong as it is sometimes trivially called does not come from China. In reality, you have to leave the Asian continent to see the beginnings of the birth of this sport.
It was on the Old Continent that table tennis experienced its first feats of arms. In English high society, at the end of a meal, notables exchanged corks with cigar humidor lids above their table and books placed as a net. At that time, and according to legend, the term ping-pong prevailed because the sound of the racket “ping” and then that of the ball bouncing on the table “pong” would have inspired those who practiced it. But at the beginning of the 20th century, everything accelerated.
Gone are the days of cigar boxes as rackets and books to form nets. Specific equipment appeared and allowed the first competitions to be organized in 1926 in Great Britain. It was at this time that ping-pong gave way to table tennis. Berlin and London hosted these first competitions and the same year the first world championship took place in the English capital, London. Since then, the discipline has developed in the four corners of the globe.
The number of licensed table tennis players is estimated at 40 million today. In China alone, 17 million are busy around a table playing this very popular sport. Along with badminton, table tennis is the most popular sport in the Asian country. As of April 30, the world ranking was dominated by the Chinese, who occupied the top four places in both the men’s and women’s tables. For comparison, no Britons are among the top 30 places, even though table tennis was created in their country.
Despite its creation dating back nearly a century and a half, table tennis made its first appearance at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988. Since then, 32 of the 37 Olympic medals awarded in this sport have been around the necks of Chinese athletes. This year, during the Paris Olympics, table tennis will take place over 15 days at the Arena Paris Sud 4. The first medals will fall on July 30, with a possible Olympic title for France led by the world’s fifth-ranked player Félix Lebrun.