China's prestigious Peking University on Saturday unveiled a wall sculpture bearing the names of all Olympic table tennis champions outside its gymnasium specially built for the Beijing Olympics table tennis competitions.
For the first time in the history of the Olympic Movement, a sculpture was created to commemorate the development of a single sport, the university said in a statement.
All the table tennis champions of previous Olympic Games, including Sweden's Jan Ove-Waldner, South Korea's Yoo Nam Kyu and China's Deng Yaping, were invited to the unveiling ceremony.
The wall sculpture is divided into six parts, symbolizing the six Olympic Games from 1988-2008, with the names of the Olympic champions engraved in golden characters.
In the lower part of the wall is a bamboo scroll, which will bear the names of future champions.
Table tennis was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1988. Since then, the Chinese paddlers have collected 16 out of 20 gold medals on offer.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)