Olympic Games Paris 2024

Para table tennis: an historic discipline that is smiling on Les Bleus

4 min|
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As one of the most successful nations at the Paralympic Games, France intends to play a leading role on home soil. To achieve this, the country will be counting on its strengths in all categories.

Did you know?

Para table tennis was already on the programme of the first Paralympic Games in Rome, in 1960! That's 28 years earlier than its Olympic counterpart, which only made its appearance at the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea.

During its first Olympics (from 1960 to 1976), Para table tennis, like all the other Paralympic disciplines, was only played by people in wheelchairs. Since then, however, the sport has opened up and now includes para-athletes with a wide range of profiles. In total, there are eleven categories of physical and intellectual disability on the programme for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Para table tennis players are divided into 11 categories:

  • wheelchair players (1-5)
  • standing players (6-11)
  • classification 11 concerns only players with an intellectual disability

To understand everything about the Paralympic classification system

Spectacular and popular

Table tennis is a hugely popular sport, with over 40 million licensed players worldwide. This great momentum is obviously reflected on the Paralympic side of the sport, which this year will provide the third largest contingent of para-athletes with 31 events on the programme for the Paris 2024 Games.

The popularity of Para table tennis is undeniable. This is largely due to the fact that it adopts the same rules as its Olympic counterpart. The only notable adaptation concerns the service for wheelchair players. For reasons of fairness, the retroactive effect is forbidden, as is the use of the short sides of the table.

All you need to know about Para table tennis

France, the leading nation in Para table tennis

More than 130 medals have been collected by the French clan since the Rome event in 1960! France leads the medal table ahead of China. The last Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 confirmed the success of Les Bleus with 10 medals, including 2 gold. A fine result only surpassed by China and South Korea (two leading nations in the Olympic and Paralympic categories).

The success of this Para sport in France can be explained by several factors. The first is undoubtedly linked to the easy accessibility of table tennis, particularly in rehabilitation centres. Everyone can play the sport, whatever their profile, and this makes it easier to spot talent. We should also mention the exceptional support provided by the federation. Year after year, we have the support of top-level coaches. Moreover, this discipline has rapidly become structured. Some para-athletes benefit of professional integration agreement which allows them to free up time to train in total serenity. All this creates a real dynamic that leads players to the highest level.
The fact that we are one of the top nations is not a burden to bear. Particularly as countries like Poland and Ukraine have made great strides in Para table tennis. The competition is increasingly tough, but our ambition remains the same: to bring home as many medals as possible! With 19 table tennis players, there are plenty of medal opportunities.
Émeric Martin, member of the French Para table tennis delegation, four-time Paralympic medallist

Lucas Créange dreams of gold in the TT11 category

A keen table tennis player since he was a teenager, Lucas likes to point out the similarities between Olympic and Paralympic table tennis. ‘Para table tennis is a discipline like able-bodied table tennis. It shows that despite a disability, you can put in a great performance and generate just as much emotion as able-bodied players'.

Winner of 8 medals at the Global Games, the quadrennial event dedicated to athletes with a mental disability, Lucas shines in one of the few Para sports to have opened up to this type of disability as part of the Paralympic Games. Indeed, Para table tennis has succeeded in developing its rules so that it is now one of only three Paralympic disciplines (along with Para athletics and Para swimming) to include athletes with an intellectual disability. Lucas Créange quickly established himself as one of the champions of the TT11 category, beating table tennis players who are not disabled very early on in his career! The French Federation of Adapted Sport, impressed by his game and his qualities, didn't let this raw talent pass unnoticed. With almost 20 hours of training a week, it is working with him to make him a gold medal contender in Paris. It's a dream that drives Lucas every day.

‘A medal is forever. My dream is to be Paralympic champion. In front of the French public shouting my name ‘Lucas’, ‘Lucas’... A dream...’.

Unprecedented media coverage

To make the dream a reality, Lucas and all the para-athletes will be able to count on unprecedented media coverage. Paris 2024 set very ambitious criteria for selecting its national broadcaster for the Paralympic Games. France Télévisions was able to satisfy this demand by capturing and broadcasting all the Para sports (a first in the history of the Paralympic Games), providing free access to 300 hours of live coverage and exceptional round-the-clock exposure. It's a real victory for all the para-athletes, including the 280 para-table tennis players who will be in Paris, and we can't wait to share the excitement with them, either behind our television screens or by their side as we make our way to the Arena Paris Sud, which will be hosting the Para table tennis events.

Discover the South Paris Arena