A player serves during the table tennis men's team match at Tokyo 2020, Aug. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Dongzhen)
BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The International Table Tennis Federation has unveiled the qualification system for the Paris 2024 Olympic table tennis event.
The Paris 2024 table tennis competition will be held from July 27 to August 10, 2024, featuring men's and women's singles, men's and women's teams, and mixed doubles. The first final will take place on July 30, 2024.
The qualification will run from June 2023. The total quota remains 172 places, 86 each for men and women, including six host country places and two universality places. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) has a maximum quota of three places each for men and women.
Each team event will consist of a draw of 16, with one team of three athletes per NOC.
The mixed doubles event will also consist of a draw of 16, with one pair per NOC.
In the singles events, up to 70 players may participate with a maximum of four players (two men and two women) per NOC, depending on the number of quotas available after the distribution of the mixed doubles quota.
The host will be guaranteed one team quota place per event, two singles quota places per event, and one mixed doubles quota place.
Table tennis made its debut at the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, with the men's and women's singles and doubles.
In 2008, the doubles competition was replaced with the team competition. The program was expanded at the 2020 Tokyo Games after adding the mixed doubles, bringing the number of events to five, and allowing the same number of women and men to take part in the competitions. ■