The History of Ping Pong

Contrary to the number of gold medals won by each country in recent Olympics, Ping Pong (aka Table Tennis) was first played in Victorian England and later spread to other parts of the world. There is an ongoing joke among Ping Pong players: There are only two levels of Ping Pong - China and everyone else. Then when and how did the Chinese become so good at the sport, much better than the country that invented it?

Ping Pong was first brought to Japan in the early 1900s then to China, where the sport garnered the love from many local political leaders. Since then, the rest of the nation caught on. In 1959, Rong Guotuan, became the first Chinese to be a world champion in any sport, winning the 1959 World Table Tennis Championships men's singles title. Later in 1988, Ping Pong was introduced as an Olympic sport. The rest is history.