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Table Tennis

With 40 million competitive players worldwide, table tennis is the world's largest participation sport. The game, also called Ping-Pong, Whiff-Whaff, Flim-Flam and Gossima, became an official Olympic sport in the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Korea.

The Rules of the Game

There are men's and women's single and doubles events at the Olympics. Each table tennis match lasts five rounds. Single and doubles teams compete in a single-elimination tournament. This means that if a team loses a match, they are out of the competition.

Table tennis is a fast-paced game. Players can hit the ball at speeds of more than 99 miles per hour. Pplayers also outwit their opponents with strategic shots called the Kill, the Hit and the Chop.

--Jessie Maxwell