The Table Tennis Museum by Owen Kelly

There is a museum for just about everything and low and behold there is a museum for table tennis. The ITTF Museum is located in Switzerland, in the heart of the Olympics community near Lausanne. I have never been to it myself but if I ever make it back to Lausanne I for one will be dragging my family round its various exhibitions.

I might not actually have to go to Switzerland to see some of the exhibits in the flesh so to speak as the museum send various exhibits to some of the top table tennis events. If you make it to Bremen for the World Teams, Curator Chuck Hoey tells me he hopes to have a display on show.

However for those of us stuck on this island, the power of the Internet can provide you with a fabulous insight into the history of the sport. The website can be found through the official ITTF website or you can just click HERE and not have to hassled by all those frames! But before you go be warned like most really good museums you could get lost as the site is very comprehensive and has hundreds of images on view.

The ITTF Museum is founded with a mission to preserve and promote the heritage of Table Tennis and tells you:

"You are about to embark on a fascinating time capsule tour of the history and evolution of Table Tennis, now an Olympic sport enjoyed world-wide. The ITTF Museum features extensive evidence of the cultural impact of Table Tennis, including art, fine jewellery and porcelain, and rare pieces of social evidence of the amazing success of the game, from its earliest years, the Ping Pong era ... to contemporary times."

The website is still relatively new and is being constantly updated Chuck tells me

"I have also implemented an ITTF Archives website with scans of many historical documents from 1926 to the present time, including World Championship pairings, scores and results (the results begin from the early years - I have not had time to enter all of them). This is accessible from the left menu bar on the museum home page."

The Museum is a work in progress and I'm assured the website will continue to evolve over time.

My favourite selection of images are the cartoons but I never really grew up, so seeing Donald and Mickey battling it out with table tennis bats appeals to me. The old adverts show how the game has progressed from its humble beginning into the scientific nightmare that modern day coaches have to contend with.

If you have any historical table tennis stuff why not drop Chuck a line I'm sure he'll be delighted to here from you. museum@ittf.com


TTIreland would like to thank Chuck Hoey for his help and please respect that all pictures and images remain the copyright of the museum and are not to be reproduced without their permission.