The 10 Craziest Table Tennis World Records • Racket Insight

To hold an official world record is the dream of thousands of people. It is an honor reserved for the very best, and the weirdest.

In table tennis, there are more than 300 recognized world records held by all sorts of different people, not necessarily professional table tennis players. You’ll find that some of the records on this list have been achieved by people who don’t even play table tennis regularly. 

In this list, we compiled the 10 most interesting and craziest table tennis world records. Let’s begin!

Longest Table Tennis Rally

Starting with our first record, it’s one that the popular YouTube channel TableTennisDaily used to have.

The record now belongs to Emil Ohlsson and Fredrik Nilsson from The Spin Duo channel, who beat TTD’s record by just 30 seconds.

The Spin Duo held a legal table tennis rally for a staggering 13 hours, 37 minutes, and 6 seconds. Don’t believe me? Here’s the video!

I loved watching this video, as it managed to convey, in just 12 minutes, how grueling the task was. 

This is, undoubtedly, one of the most incredible table tennis records. It was a true test of concentration and willpower for the Swedish pair, and one that they passed with flying colors.

Oldest Table Tennis Player

Continuing with the topic of time, we’ll continue with the following record, one that nearly brought tears to my eyes. It’s time for us to introduce the legendary Dot De Low.

Dot De Low set the world record as the world’s oldest player by participating in the 2010 World Veterans Championships at the age of 100 years old.

Dot participated in the women’s singles over 85 category, giving 15 years of advantage to her opponents. That didn’t stop her from taking games off her opponents with her powerful backhand punch, though!

Here’s a video of Dot playing and giving an interview:

I felt moved by this record while doing my research, but what really touched my heart was watching her talk.

When asked what he thought about playing in the World Championships, Dot had a clear answer:

“I think it’s wonderful, making all those friends…”. 

I would have given anything to play a game with Dot. I hope that, wherever she is, table tennis is with her kind soul.

Youngest Olympic Table Tennis Medalist 

On the other end of the spectrum, we have another amazing woman, Japanese superstar Mima Ito.

Mima holds one of the most incredible table tennis records, as she’s the youngest Olympic medalist, having won her medal at the age of 15. Yes, you read that right!

Mima won bronze in the women’s team table tennis event, together with Kasumi Ishikawa and Ai Fukuhara.

Most Table Tennis Counter Hits in One Minute

The next incredible record we have selected for this article is the most table tennis counter hits in one minute. 

The two players who hold this record have been able to hit the ball a whopping 180 times back and forth in just 60 seconds, exactly 3 times per second.

But who’s the pair that set this record, you may ask? It’s Mima Ito again! 

Mima, paired with Tacshow Arai, managed to pull off this outrageous feat, one that’s as technical as it is mental. 

You need two players who can hit fast but not too deep, not too high, always to the exact same spot, while not missing a single shot in a minute. 

Here’s the video of Mima and Tacshow practicing, hitting the ball 175 times in a minute, 5 shy of what their record ended up being:

Fastest Ping Pong Ball

The last record was fast, yes, but it’s nothing compared to this one.

It turns out that there’s a record of the “fastest ping pong ball”. I initially thought it’d be the fastest table tennis shot, that is, the fastest recorded smash by a player. 

Far from it, the record consists of how fast you can make a table tennis ball travel, by any means possible. Yes, this record is probably the most outrageous one on the list. 

It turns out that, to earn this record, a mechanical engineer by the name of Mike Aesoph built a literal table tennis ball cannon. 

Mike explained that he started building the cannon to gain attention for his “Boy Scout NOVA Shoot!” workshop.

“This is why I decided to make the cannon – it would give the kids a “WOW!” factor and would be something they are willing to talk with other kids about and potentially lead other kids into scouting or STEM.”

Now for the important part: how fast could he make a table tennis ball go? 100mph? 200mph? 300mph? 

Mike’s cannon was capable of shooting a table tennis ball at a mind-blowing velocity of 2,519mph (just over 4,000km/h)

If you don’t believe me, here’s Mike’s video explaining how the cannon works, and showing it shoot the ball that earned him his world record!

Largest Collection of Table Tennis (Ping Pong) Pins

The next record belongs to Tonino Solazzi, an Italian table tennis pins collector who has been gathering table tennis-related pins for over 30 years.

In his collection, Tonino had 2762 pieces at the moment the record was set; he probably has many more now, as we found that Tonino is still buying and trading table tennis pins.

Here’s a photo of some pins in Tonino’s collection:

To think that Tonino’s collection has more than 2800 of these pieces is incredible to me.

First Commercially Successful Arcade Video Game

The industry of video games is massive. According to 2024 data, approximately 3.32 billion people worldwide play them.

And, an amazing record table tennis has, is that the first successful video game was a table tennis related one. Have you guessed it yet?

Of course, we’re talking about the game Pong. Pong was released for the Atari game console in 1972, and it sold more than 35,000 units, giving birth to the commercial video game industry.

We’ve also written an article featuring the best table tennis games if this topic interests you.

Most National Championships Won in Table Tennis (male)

Yet another incredible record is the one held by Mario Genovese, who’s a 37-time Maltese national champion.

Mario obtained 21 national titles in the Men’s Singles event and 16 national titles in the Men’s Doubles event.

Oldest Player to Win an Olympic Table Tennis Match

The oldest player who’s ever won an Olympic match is Ni Xia Lian. Ni defeated Sibel Altinkaya by 4 games to 2 in the women’s singles Round of 64 at the Paris Olympics, at the age of 61.

Ni Xia Lian is a double world champion, as she won team and mixed doubles gold medals for China in the 1983 World Table Tennis Championships. 

Now representing Luxembourg, Ni is still playing at the highest level and winning matches against players sometimes 40+ years younger than her.

Most World Records (Table Tennis)

Finally, we decided to include a record that’s not recognized by Guinness, but rather, it’s one we created ourselves.

We counted all the world records to see who’s got the most, and it turns out that it’s none other than the GOAT, Ma Long.

Ma Long is not only the greatest player of all time, but also the player with the most official world records, with 5.

Ma Long holds the records for:

• Most ITTF World Tour table tennis singles titles (male), with 28.
• Most Table Tennis Olympic medals, with 6.
• Most table tennis Olympic golds (male), with 6.
• Most wins of the men’s singles ITTF table tennis World Tour Grand Finals, with 6.
• Most consecutive wins of the ITTF World Tour Grand Finals (male), with 2.

The Records of Tomorrow

The fact that Ma Long holds the most official world records with 5 is incredible, but here’s the thing about records: they’re meant to be broken.

Right now, somewhere in the world, there’s probably a pair of players practicing their rally technique, determined to beat The Spin Duo’s 13-hour marathon. There might be an engineer tinkering with a new cannon design, trying to launch a ping pong ball faster than 2,519mph. Perhaps a young collector is hunting down that one elusive pin to surpass Tonino’s collection.

These records represent more than just numbers in a book. They’re snapshots of human creativity, determination, and the endless pursuit of “what if?” 

The beauty of it all? The next person to shatter one of these achievements could be anyone. It could be a professional player, a casual beginner, or someone who’s never even held a paddle before but has a wild idea and the determination to see it through.

So whether you’re inspired to attempt a record yourself or simply amazed by what’s possible when people push boundaries, remember that every record on this list was once thought virtually impossible. Until someone made it happen.