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It is estimated that Table Tennis or
Ping Pong began as a social hobby in England toward the end of the 1800s. The
game was played with wooden bats or paddles and cork balls, usually on dining
room tables, and was referred to as ping-pong, gossima or flim-flam. Early in
the 1900s pimpled rubber were used on the bats or paddles and celluloid balls
were introduced. It wasn’t until around the 1920s that the game gained some
popularity in Europe, and started to refer to it as table tennis.
The International Table Tennis
Association (ITTF) was formed in 1926. Soon after that the sport spread to Japan
and other Asian countries.
Japan dominated the sport for most of
the 50s and 60s, but the Chinese slowly started to catch up. Eventually the
Chinese started to dominate the sport and continued to do so for most of the
late 60s and 70s. It wasn’t until 1980 when table tennis became an Olympic
event. After this the game became popular in other countries like Sweden and
South Korea, and many other countries followed.
This was only a brief summary of the
history of table tennis, if you want more details, they can be found at the
following website:
http://www.ittf.com
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