How it unfolded
At the Seoul 1988 Games, table tennis became an Olympic sport for the first time, and the men's singles final ended up an all-host-nation affair. Twenty-year-old Yoo Nam-kyu was a classic Asian-style attacker, a left-handed penholder built around a powerful forehand and court-covering footwork. Across the table stood his own national teammate, Kim Ki-taek. In a best-of-five final under the 21-point system, Yoo won 3-1 to take gold, with Kim taking silver. At the same Games, Yang Young-ja and Hyun Jung-hwa won the women's doubles, China's Chen Jing won women's singles, and the men's doubles pairing of Chen Longcan and Wei Qingguang of China took gold. Host nation Korea took two of the four available golds, showing from the sport's very first Olympic appearance that countries other than China could reach the summit.
Why it still matters
A sport that began as a parlor game took 100 years to reach the Olympics, and its first final was contested between two Korean players. From this tournament, the sport's premier stage began shifting from the World Championships to the Olympics, and singles gold, available only once every four years, became one of the hardest legs of the career Grand Slam to obtain. In Korea, this gold medal was also a direct trigger for a sharp rise in recreational table tennis participation.