I'd like to describe a quite popular sport--table tennis. Table tennisis, an indoor game in which two opposing players or pair of players use small rackets, often called bats or paddles, to hit a small, lightweight celluoid ball over a net on a table. Like many other sports, table tennis began as a mild social diversion. It was popular in england in the 1890s. James Gibb, an englishman who visited the united states in 1900, brought some hollow celluloid balls home and began playing indoor tennis with friends, using the new balls. Gibb apparently came up with the name “ ping pong”, representing the sounds of the ball hitting the paddle and then the table. In 1902, another englishman, e.c. Goode, covered his wooden ping pong paddle with pebbled rubber. The new coating made the game faster and also allowed players to put even more spin in the ball. In berlin, in january in 1926, the international table tennis federation held its first meeting and world championships was held in london in december of that year. From 1957, the world championship have been held biennial ever since. Table tennis became an olympic sport in 1988, with singles and doubles competition for both men and women.
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