Table Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympics

The events and formats in 1996 were almost the same as 1992 – singles and doubles for both men and women. Again a series of round-robin pools were played to advance 16 players in singles and eight teams in doubles. Pool matches were best of three games, and elimination matches best of five games, all played to 21. The only difference was that in 1988-92, both losing semi-finalists received bronze medals, but starting in 1996, a bronze medal match was played. For the first time, China would win all four Olympic titles. The 1996 Olympics began a trend in which many of the non-Chinese players were actually Chinese émigrés competing for other nations. The Chinese program was so strong that top international players could not make their travelling teams, so they elected to begin a table tennis diaspora so they could compete at the Olympics.