Although the 1929 economic crisis affected France from 1931 onwards, the sport system continued its ascent during the 1930s. Some sports, such as ping-pong, also called table-tennis for questions of legal risk between the federations and the ping-pong brand, took advantage of this context of crisis to develop. A fashionable sport in 1932 and 1933, this new practice developed in drinking establishments where the sporting culture was already well established since bars often served as the head offices of many clubs. However, once the craze had subsided ping-pong struggled to evolve in a spatial and economic environment that was less favorable to its expansion.
Table tennis was first played as an Olympic sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Yet its official body, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), had not always sought Olympic recognition. Founded in 1926, the ITTF was in conflict with the Olympic movement in its early years. While the democratized and apolitical vision of table tennis did not appearto be fundamentally at odds with Olympic values, amateurism was an obstacle for the federation. As a result, only after 50 years, in 1977, did the ITTF finally bow to the principles of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Thereafter, Olympic recognition became a major symbolic and economic pillar of the ITTF's development strategy. The aims of the two institutions became aligned as the popularity of table tennis internationally, particularly in Asia, contributed to the goal of globalizing the Olympics. This rapprochement with Asian markets accelerated under the IOC presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch from 1981, leading to the inclusion of the discipline in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
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