ABOUT THE SPORT: More than 40-million people play table tennis worldwide, a number supporters say makes it the world's largest participation sport. Thought to have been started in England in the late 1800s, table tennis was introduced to the Olympics in 1988 at Seoul. China has proven why table tennis is its national sport, winning more medals than any other country. In 1996 and 2000, the Chinese won 16 of 24 medals. In the Olympics there are singles and doubles competitions. Matches are best-of-five games. A game is won by the first player to reach 11 points and lead by two.
THE WORLD'S BEST: China has the top-five women in the world and four of the top-five men. The No.1 woman is Yining Zhang, and the top-ranked man is Liqin Wang. China has been dominant since the 1960s; however, its domination was dinged at last year's World Championship. Werner Schlager of Austria and Joo Se-Hyuk of Korea blocked China from a sweep by meeting in the men's final, which Schlager won.
AMERICA'S BEST: ... is from China. Gao Jun Chang, a woman born in China who still trains there, could be the Americans' best chance at a medal. Gao, a seven-time national champion, is the highest ranked player at No.16 in the world. Other women include Jasna Reed (No.120) and Whitney Ping (No.387), who recently paired to win the North American doubles trials, and Tawny Banh (No.154).
The top man is Ilija Lupulesku, sitting at No.110. Other men include Khoa Nguyen (No.329) and Mark Hazinski (No.375).
MORE MEDALS: Three of the nine members of the U.S. team have won medals - for different countries. Gao won a silver in doubles for China in 1992. For Yugoslavia, Lupulesku was a silver medalist and Reed earned bronze in doubles in 1988. The United States never has won a medal.
SMELLY SCANDAL: They may not be checking for performance-enhancing drugs, but there are some performance-enhancing glues. They long have been used on paddles to generate faster spin on the ball. (The tiny ball can move as fast as 100 mph.) Recently, some glues have been banned by sanctioning bodies. The Olympics have deemed certain glues illegal, but other glues still are allowed.
DID YOU KNOW?: The University of Florida has the second-ranked college club team in the country, according to the National College Table Tennis Association. Perhaps the Gators have some future Olympians.
