Esports legitimizes itself — it doesn’t need the Olympics

When table tennis was added to the Olympic Games in 1988, its proponents had spent 57 years pushing for its inclusion. But what may surprise you is that a major roadblock was internal from the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), not external from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). There had always been disagreement as to whether inclusion in the Olympics as an event would benefit the sport.

Former ITTF chairman Ivor Montagu represented the anti-Olympic view, saying, “I am opposed to the inclusion of table tennis in the Olympic Games,” adding among his reasons, “[Table tennis] does not need the Olympics. For us, they are a duplication.”