International Table Tennis Federation
10 May 2021
The best players in the world should compete; also, as many players from as many countries as possible should take part. Such was the mandate of the International Olympic Committee in 1980 when approval was given to table tennis being included in the Olympic Games.
Added to the difficulties experienced by the current pandemic, it is one of the major reasons why an extensive qualification procedure is required.
Pavel Sirucek gained the very last place available by continental qualification (Photo: Richard Kalocsai)
by Ian Marshall
In fact, if you are so minded, qualification can be traced back to Saturday 7th September 2013, when Tokyo was announced the winner of the ballot. Automatically the host nation receives a direct entry. The full complement of places, a men’s and women’s team each with three players; from those players, two compete in each of the men’s and women’s singles plus one mixed doubles pair.