Para table tennis has been part of the Paralympic programme since the first Games were held in Rome in 1960, when only wheelchair athletes competed. Interestingly, table tennis has a much longer history in the Paralympic Games than its Olympic counterpart, which debuted at the Olympic Games in 1988. Table tennis is the third largest Paralympic sport in terms of athlete numbers, with more than 40 million competitive players in over 100 countries worldwide.
Like all other Paralympic sports, table tennis was only open to athletes in wheelchairs from the inaugural Games in 1960 up until the Toronto 1976 Paralympics. Today, this sport is played by athletes with a wide range of impairments, who are placed into 11 classes based on their physical and intellectual impairments for Paralympic competitions.