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Table tennis is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players take alternating turns returning a light, hollow ball over the table's net onto the opposing half of the court using small rackets until they fail to do so, which results in a point for the opponent. Play is fast, requiring quick reaction and constant attention, and is characterized by an emphasis on spin relative to other ball sports, which can heavily affect the ball's trajectory.
Ping-pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of table tennis (ping-pong) players between the United States (US) and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the early 1970s, that began during the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan as a result of an encounter between players Glenn Cowan and Zhuang Zedong. The exchange and its promotion helped to humanize the people in each country after a period of isolation and distrust. It paved the way for President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing in 1972, and is considered a turning point in relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
Allen E. Fox is an American former tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s who went on to be a college coach and author. He was ranked as high as U.S. No. 4 in 1962, and was in the top ten in the U.S. five times between 1961 and 1968.
Laszlo Bellak was a Hungarian and American table tennis player.
David Zhuang is a professional Chinese-born American table tennis player.
Mark "Haz" Hazinski is an American professional table tennis athlete. He started playing table tennis at the age of 9 and by the age of 15 had become the youngest player in the history of United States Table Tennis to make the United States Men's National Table Tennis Team. Hazinski simultaneously represented the United States Men's Team and United States Junior Team for 4 consecutive years (2000-2003).
Chris Kinard is an American badminton player who was considered the top U.S. singles player in the 1970s, having been the U.S. # 1 ranked men's singles player for 7 of the decade's 10 years. He is married to former badminton player Utami Kinard.
Sean O'Neill is an American table tennis player and coach. He began playing table tennis in Virginia at the age of 8 with this father, Patrick, who was a nationally ranked junior player from Toledo, Ohio. O'Neill went on to win every US National Age Championship title, including the Under 11, 13, 15, 17, 21, and Over 30 events. In addition to the age events, O'Neill won the US National Men's Singles, Men's Doubles, and Mixed Doubles Championships.
Sally Prouty was an American retired table tennis champion. She was inducted into the United States of America Table Tennis (USATT) Hall of Fame in 1979.
USA Table Tennis, colloquially known as USATT, is the non-profit governing body for table tennis in the United States and is responsible for cataloging and sanctioning table tennis tournaments within the country. It was founded in 1933 as the United States Table Tennis Association. In addition to processing tournaments, USATT maintains a national rating and ranking system. It also oversees the USA National Teams. In total, USATT has over 9,000 members. The headquarters of USA Table Tennis is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, which is also home to the United States Olympic Training Center. USA Table Tennis offers a $100,000 incentive for American Olympic table tennis athletes, though no American athlete has ever won a medal for table tennis.
The United States of America (USA), represented by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from July 27 to August 12, 2012. U.S. athletes have competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow which they boycotted in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The USOC sent a total of 530 athletes to the Games, 262 men and 268 women, to compete in 25 sports. For the first time in its Olympic history, the United States was represented by more female than male athletes.
Ruth Hughes Aarons was a US table tennis player, vaudeville entertainer, and talent manager.
Gertrude "Traute or Trude" Kleinová was a three-time world champion table tennis player, winning the women's team world championship twice, and the world mixed doubles once.
Table tennis in the United States is regulated by USA Table Tennis. USATT Historian Tim Boggan has written a volume of books entitled “History of U.S. Table Tennis” to give the readers a brief overview of how the sport of table tennis came to be. There are a total of 19 books in the series. Table tennis was initially considered an alternative to lawn tennis at parties and events. However, the rapid rise in popularity of table tennis reached worldwide and caught attention in the United States. In 1993, the official governing body of the United States Table Tennis Association was created. The sport was not named ping pong since that name was already taken from by the Parker Brothers. The non-profit corporation version of the United States Table Tennis Association truncated their name to “USA Table Tennis”.
Insook Bhushan is a South Korea-born American table tennis player. She was a member of the South Korean women's team that won the bronze medal at the 1971 World Championships. At the 1973 World Championships, she was limited to the role of "non-playing captain" of the gold medal-winning South Korean women's team. In 1974, she emigrated to the United States, where her father had established an import-export business. The following year, she married the architect Shekhar Bhushan and in 1980 became a US citizen.
Shui-Ling "Lily" Yip is a Chinese-born American table tennis player and coach.
Atanda Ganiyu Musa is a Nigerian table tennis player. He represented Nigeria at two Summer Olympics in 1988 and 1992, taking part in both the singles and doubles events. He was once ranked 20th in the world at his peak.
Davida Hawthorn was a United States international table tennis player. She was from New York.
Michael Henry Dempsey was an American para table tennis player who competed in eight Paralympic Games. His best rank was world no.2 in class 4 in April 2001.
Dennis Douglas Van der Meer was a South West African born, American tennis administrator, instructor and coach.
References
- 1 2 USATT Hall of Fame Profiles, http://www.usatt.org/organization/halloffame/dseemiller.html
- ↑ "Home - South Bend Table Tennis Center". www.sbttc.org.
- ↑ USATT Ratings, http://www.usatt.org/history/rating/history/index2.asp