table tennis

11 Stories

Table Tennis Selfie May Haunt North Korean Players
Table Tennis Selfie May Haunt
North Korean Players
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Aug 31, 2024 1:20 PM CDT

Table Tennis Selfie May Haunt North Korean Players

Silver medalists reportedly in hot water over photo with South Korean rivals at Olympics

(Newser) - At the time, it was hailed by NPR as an example of "selfie diplomacy" and later chosen by People as one of the best sportsmanship moments from the Olympics. But a selfie featuring two North Korean table tennis players may have landed both in hot water back home, reports...

This Olympian's Parents Wish She Would Quit
This Olympian's Parents
Wish She Would Quit
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Aug 3, 2024 4:10 PM CDT

This Olympian's Parents Wish She Would Quit

Table-tennis champ Lily Zhang is playing in her 4th Olympic Games

(Newser) - Paris marks the fourth Olympic appearance for Lily Zhang, the top-ranked US table-tennis player at these Games. The 28-year-old's parents are there to cheer her on. But they also wish she'd just quit and get a job. In a colorful profile, the Wall Street Journal charts Zhang's...

Queen Camilla Proves Table Tennis Isn't Her Thing

French first lady Brigitte Macron didn't do too well, either, in her match against King Charles III's wife

(Newser) - The British royals have historically been known for their hunting, polo, and horseback-riding skills. Not typically on that list of specialties: table tennis, though Queen Camilla did her darnedest Thursday as she faced off against France's first lady. The Guardian notes that Camilla and her husband, King Charles III,...

If the Olympics Happen, This 11-Year-Old Will Be There

Organizers continue debate what to do amidst the coronavirus epidemic

(Newser) - An 11-year-old girl from Syria is set to become the fifth-youngest Olympian in history. The Guardian reports Hend Zaza qualified for the Tokyo Games in table tennis, a sport that has no minimum age, upon winning a qualifying tournament in Jordan last week. Hend, who is ranked 155th in the...

In Rio, Complaints Fly Faster Than Awful Table Tennis Balls
Rio Olympics Table Tennis
Has a Ball Problem
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2016 3:10 PM CDT

Rio Olympics Table Tennis Has a Ball Problem

Players say new balls break easily and bounce unpredictably

(Newser) - You know what they say: That's the way the ball bounces. Or maybe that's the way the ball bounces. And that ball just broke in half instead of bouncing at all. The New York Times reports complaints are flying fast and furious among table tennis players at the...

Forget Soccer Moms— Meet Ping-Pong Parents

Immigrants' kids dominate table tennis scene

(Newser) - Good old-fashioned American sports parenting meets immigrant drive at the India Community Center in the Silicon Valley town of Milpitas, Calif., which is churning out the country’s best young ping-pong players. Top coaches from India and China are schooling the children of high-tech workers who know the drill for...

Winehouse Addicted...to Ping-Pong

 Winehouse 
 Addicted...to 
 Ping-Pong 
SHE WANTS BUTT IMPLANTS, TOO
Nov 11, 2009 10:42 AM CST

Winehouse Addicted...to Ping-Pong

Amy Winehouse stays in to play table tennis, considers a butt job

(Newser) - Amy Winehouse has a new addiction. What vice is it this time: Cocaine? Her ex-husband? Nope. It’s her new ping-pong table. “She barely leaves the house,” a source tells the Mirror . In equally ridiculous Winehouse news, the recently-breast-enhanced singer is now pining for bigger boobs—and considering...

Celebs Lead Ping-Pong Renaissance

Nerdy game gets a trendy makeover

(Newser) - Forget dusty suburban basements: Ping-pong, once the sport of nerds and misfits, is enjoying an unlikely image makeover at the hands (and paddles) of A-list devotees flocking to trendy ping-pong clubs, reports the Independent. At the star-studded opening of exclusive new ping-pong hall SPiN, in New York, Susan Sarandon...

Pickup Ping-Pong Rules Chinese Playgrounds

Columnist gets schooled playing pick-up in Beijing

(Newser) - China’s domination in table tennis is well documented—the top nine players in the world are Chinese, and the country nearly always takes the gold medal. But the LA Times’ Bill Plaschke wanted to see the sport in its natural habitat: in the park. Ping-pong tables dot Beijing the...

Ping-Pong Got Ball Rolling to Beijing Games

Two players braved Sino-US frost with landmark '71 visit

(Newser) - It wasn't statesmen who broke China's 22 years of isolation from the West in 1971, but rather, Sports Illustrated notes, grown men with paddles. When Glenn Cowan accidentally jumped on the Chinese team bus during world table-tennis championships in Japan, star Zhuang Zedong brushed aside Mao's anti-capitalist harangues to greet...

Game, Set, Match to China
 Game, Set, Match to China 
Apr 11, 2008 11:46 AM CDT

Game, Set, Match to China

World of table tennis is international, but not really

(Newser) - Go to a table tennis match between, say, Poland and Finland, and you’ll see something confusing. “It’s just Chinese playing against each other,” says America’s national team coach. China is so mind-bogglingly dominant at table tennis that it exports players throughout the world and still...

11 Stories
Most Read on Newser