First Olympic table tennis venue inaugurated

(BEIJING, Dec 9) -- The Olympic table tennis, or ping pong, venue was officially inaugurated today. Located on the campus of Peking University, the facility stands west of North Zhongguancun Street and south of the Pacific Tower. It is not only a landmark within Peking University, it is also the world's first ever professional sports venue dedicated to table tennis. It will host its first Olympic match on August 13, 2008.

The table tennis competitions have been held in the last 5 Olympics in shared venues with other sports.

On June 23, 1894, Frenchman Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, and 79 others from 12 different countries decided to form the International Olympics Committee (IOC). At the time, nobody could have imagined the scale of the project entailed by reviving the ancient Olympic Games.

The 1st Olympic Games of the modern era opened in Athens, the birthplace of the Olympics movement, from the 6th to the 15th of April, 1896. 311 male athletes representing 13 nationalities, including Greece, UK, Hungary, Germany, USA, and Sweden, participated in 9 different major competitions: track & field, swimming, weightlifting, shooting, cycling, tennis, gymnastics, fencing and wrestling. Since then, the Olympic movement has grown exponentially, incorporating many more sports and enticing scores of competitors.

It wasn't until 1988 that table tennis was deputed as an official Olympic sport, fighting for its place on the official program during the 24th Olympic Games in Seoul. As the capital of Republic of Korea, Seoul is a very modern Asian city, home to contrasting modern skyscrapers and ancient buildings.

Before the construction of the venues for the 10th Asian Games, Seoul was already selected as the primary candidate city for the 24th Olympiad. As such, during the design stages of the Asian Games venues, ideas regarding Olympic venues were also considered to avoid unnecessary redevelopment.

In December, 1986, the Seoul Olympics Committee finalized its construction plans on Olympic venues and facilities. These plans included 34 competition venues and 72 practice facilities. 21 existing facilities would be converted into Olympic competition venues, while the other 13 would be newly-built. The 72 practice facilities would also be converted from existing facilities.

The Olympic center was located in the southwestern part of Seoul, 13km from the city's center, covering 591,000 square meters and including 5 international sports venues: the main Olympics Stadium, the Jamsil Gymnasium, the Jamsil Aquatics Center, the Jamsil Student Stadium, and the Jamsil Baseball Stadium.

The first ever table tennis match was held in the Jamsil Gymnasium. The venue's area covers 25,800 square meters, with a seating capacity of 20,000. Aside from ping pong, the Jamsil Gymnasium also held other Olympics events, such as basketball, volleyball, handball, boxing and wrestling.

The sport of table tennis has always shared its venue with other sports; however, in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, ping pong competitions will be held in its own space, the first ever Olympic facility dedicated solely to the sport.

The PUG covers an area of 26,900 square meters. The table tennis venue on the first floor is 47 meters long and 39.5 meters wide, with room for eight competition tables and seating (permanent and temporary) for 7,557 spectators.

Upcoming table tennis events held at the gymnasium includes this year's Good Luck Beijing finals, from December 13 to 19; the ITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finals; the table tennis preliminaries and finals for the Beijing Olympics from August 8 to 20, 2008; and the Paralympics from September 9 to 17, 2008.