9 Facts About Table Tennis That Will Blow Your Mind

Are you a table tennis fan? Or just a random spectator? Well you should try considering it making it your most loved sports just like the other 10 million populations out there in the world!

Yes you read it right! 10 million is HUGE! According to Nelson & MacNee (1996) “Table tennis is the most popular racquet sport in the world and ranked second overall in terms of participation. Over 10 million players compete in sanctioned tournaments each year “written in Official spectator guide By Olympic world library for the reference of complete guidance on Table Tennis. (By the way, it’s a must-read if you are a table tennis player)

Table tennis has also made its strong position in Olympics as the very first World Table Tennis Championships were held in London in 1926, however, it still had to wait much longer earlier than it was officially accepted as a sport and gave its official  Olympic debut at the Seoul Games in 1988.

You can find quite a lot of content on table tennis on our blog , so I have decided to write on a lighter note about all the interesting facts about Table tennis And why not? This game really deserves a respect for all the struggles in getting its official existence worldwide.

 So let’s start pinning down some cool facts about Table Tennis!

MAXIMUM BALLS HITTING RECORD

Did you know the maximum balls hitting in table tennis balls in 60 seconds? The present record is 173 set by Jackie Bellinger and Lisa Lomas in 1993.

GET IN SHAPE WITH TABLE TENNIS

Did you know the maximum balls hitting in table tennis balls in 60 seconds? The present record is 173 set by Jackie Bellinger and Lisa Lomas in 1993.

A STOP TO SPORTS

This one is a historic heartbreaker!!! Can you imagine that Table tennis was once allegedly banned in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1950 since this sport was thought to be injurious to the eyes which were later rebutted (Thankfully). Read more about the History of Table Tennis here.

RESTORING US-CHINA DIPLOMACY

Yes that’s true! Back in 1971, Sthis sport brought peace among the two countries. Back in 1971, when no US delegation had visited China since 1949, China invited US table tennis players particularly for a broad series of forthcoming tournaments and friendly matches in China. Also this experience was later referred as table tennis diplomacy.

HUGE PADDLE RUBBER VARIETIES AVAILABLE

You will be familiar with the requirement for players to bring in only authorized paddles with ITTF aligned rubbers in order to play in table tennis official tournaments, championships and other events.

It’s quite surprising (at least for me) to know that there are approximately 1,500 authorized rubber varieties from which actually the players can choose from. However the nature, material of these rubbers varies from textures as some are hard, others are soft, and some are pimpled. All of the options offer different levels of performance based on the player’s preferences.

BEST TABLE TENNIS PLAYER ISN’T A CHINESE

Well here goes another surprise bomb! Table tennis being filled by Chinese players yet the best player is a SWEDE! Jan-Ove Waldner is history’s best Table Tennis player got so much popularity in China that they gave him a Chinese name which is “Chang Qing Shu” who is basically a Swedish sports legend. Now he is known as “Mozart of Table Tennis” in the table tennis world.

AN INSPIRATION FOR THE INVENTORS

An entrepreneur and Inventor of the bagel machine, Daniel Thompson, inventor of the bagel machine, died in September 2015. Even as he was admired for his top-notch culinary designs, but he was also famous for modernizing leisure rooms across the country for table tennis. One of Daniel’s less popular but in way identifiable creations was the folding Ping-Pong table with wheels.

TABLE TENNIS IS THE MOST POPULAR INDOOR SPORT IN THE WORLD

It’s an amazing feeling to know how important table tennis has become in the past few years. So and so it has been recognized as the most famous indoor games with 222 associations integration worldwide and also affiliated to international table tennis federation. Additionally I would like to mention a world record here according to a report by CMS Media Research.

“Table tennis is now China’s most watched sport and is still on the rise, with the sport accumulating nearly one-billion viewers in the world’s most populous nation last year, including 34 million to watch the final of the men’s singles at London 2012, according to a report published by CMS Media Research”

Also adding to that President of International Table Tennis Federation Adham Sharara quoted: “It seems that the Chinese population’s appetite for table tennis continues to increase”.

Chinese Domination in Table tennis Courts!

For this, I would first like to just give you a quick statistics given below via gamespot.com

As we all are aware of the fact that China has adopted this game as its national sport and yes their players literally owns their national sport by winning most of the table tennis championships.

If we dig in more detail you will be surprised to know that China actually won 98 matches in total out of 119 global championships and tournaments since 1981. Well that’s kind of clean sweep!

I hope this article has added some value to your research about table tennis! If you know something more interesting about table tennis you can comment below!