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Table tennis was included in the Olympic Games for the first time in:

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Answer: Option D — 1988

Detailed Solution

Table tennis became an Olympic sport at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in South Korea. Four events were held: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles.

Changes to Olympic table tennis events:

  • 1988-2004: singles and doubles events for men and women.
  • 2008 Beijing: the doubles events were replaced by men's and women's team events.
  • 2020 Tokyo (held in 2021): a mixed doubles event was added, making five events.
  • China has dominated Olympic table tennis, winning the large majority of all gold medals since 1988.

About table tennis:

It originated in England in the 1880s as an after-dinner parlour game among the upper class. It was also called "ping-pong" and "whiff-whaff".

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) was founded in 1926; its headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The first World Table Tennis Championships were held in London in 1926.

The Swaythling Cup (men's team) and Corbillon Cup (women's team) are awarded at the World Championships.

Key rules and measurements:

  • Games are played to 11 points (since 2001; earlier 21).
  • The table is 2.74 m long, 1.525 m wide and 76 cm high; the net is 15.25 cm high.
  • The ball is 40 mm in diameter and weighs 2.7 g.

India in Olympic table tennis:

  • Indian players have competed since 1988.
  • At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Manika Batra became the first Indian table tennis player to reach the round of 16 (pre-quarterfinals) in singles, and the Indian women's team reached the quarter-finals for the first time.
  • Achanta Sharath Kamal, India's most successful table tennis player, competed in five Olympics and won many Commonwealth Games medals.

Other sports and their Olympic debuts:

Badminton: 1992. Tennis (returned): 1988. Taekwondo: 2000. Golf (returned): 2016. Skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing and karate: 2020. Breaking: 2024.

Why not the other options?

  • ✗1964 is when volleyball and judo entered the Olympics.
  • ✗1992 is when badminton became an Olympic sport.
  • ✗1976 is when women's basketball and handball were added.

Quick tip

Remember: Table tennis = Olympic since 1988 (Seoul); team events from 2008; mixed doubles from 2020; ITTF = 1926; badminton = Olympic since 1992.

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Sports — Preparation

This question tests your understanding of Sports, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.

This topic covers sports GK: major tournaments and their venues, trophies and cups associated with each sport, sports terms, the number of players in a team, sports awards in India, Olympic and Asian Games facts, and famous sportspersons and their achievements. Common questions ask which sport a trophy belongs to (such as the Durand Cup for football or the Ranji Trophy for cricket), which term is used in which sport, and where a tournament was held. Records and results change after every season, so pair static facts such as team sizes and terms with recent results from current affairs. Practise the sports questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.

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