Table Tennis at 2024 Paris Olympics: Scoring rules, format and path to medal
Olympics have been an integral part of worldwide sports since the Athens edition in 1896. However, table tennis saw a much later introduction to the Summer Games. It was only introduced to the Games back in 1988 in Seoul with the men's and women's doubles and singles competitions. However, the mixed doubles category was added only in the recent edition in Tokyo.
Speaking about nations which have dominated the game (not at the Olympics), it was mainly European countries like Hungary, Germany, Austria and Czech Republic. After the Seoul Olympics, the dynamics of the champions changed in the Summer Games and currently China leads the race with a total of 60 medals in their bag, of which 32 are gold.
India have never won a medal in table tennis at the Olympics. But the Paris Olympics is expected to serve as a perfect platform to script a new history for the nation. This time out, India are fielding perhaps their best-ever table tennis contingent in recent times.
They have heavyweight paddlers like Sreeja Akula, Manika Batra and Sharath Kamal, who can go the distance and their recent form and preparations are a testament to it. Moreover, the use of technology to analyse themselves and their opponents is a bonus addition, which will certainly help Massimo Costantini's army in the upcoming Games.
Rules of the sport
Speaking of the general facts, the sport as suggested by its name is played on a table divided into two equal halves by a net. The paddlers use a ball which is extremely small in shape and very light in weight. Even the rackets or paddles which are used are wooden but lightweight. Both sides of the racket are padded with rubber.
In singles matches, it is mainly a best-of-seven games format. The first paddler to reach 11 points with a margin of two-clear points is decided to be the winner. For team matches, it is a best-of-five games format which comprises four singles matches and one doubles match. A total of three players are allowed in a team. The team winning three individual games wins the match.
Format and path to medal
For singles, the competition kicks off with a preliminary round, followed by Round of 64, Round of 32, Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, bronze medal match and ultimately the final or the gold Medal match.
The mixed doubles start directly from the Round of 16 and then follows the same format as the singles category.
The team matches start with the Round of 16 clashes and follow the same format as singles and mixed doubles categories.