History

Table Tennis has been part of the Paralympic programme since the first Games in 1960. However, it was not until the Toronto 1976 Paralympic Games that standing players classified as amputees and les autres were included. Athletes with cerebral palsy took part for the first time in 1980. Athletes with an intellectual disability were introduced during the 1998 IPC Table Tennis World Championships in Paris, France, and the event was on the Paralympic programme for the first time at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

The first Table Tennis subcommittee was formed in the 1970s under the then International Stoke Mandeville Games Federation (now ISMWSF) and was only responsible for wheelchair events. With the introduction of standing players in the 1976 and athletes with cerebral palsy in 1980, the various Table Tennis subcommittees came together to consider the issue of combined classification. This later led to the formation of a single Table Tennis Committee. For this reason, Table Tennis was considered the pioneer sport among the others in combining all disability classes. In the Seoul 1988 Paralympic Games, run under the auspices of the International Coordinating Committee, the combined committee for Table Tennis was formed.