ITTF launches centenary photography awards to preserve table tennis history

Table tennis’s 100th anniversary year is being marked with a different kind of contest: one that asks who gets to shape the sport’s visual memory. As London hosted the centenary championships, the ITTF opened its Centenary Photography Awards with the World Sports Photography Awards, turning the spotlight from the table to the archive.

The project is built around a simple but powerful idea: the first century of table tennis should be recorded not only through the iconic modern action shots everyone already knows, but also through older, less-circulated photographs that may still be sitting in family albums, club archives, boxes in lofts or the files of member associations. The ITTF said it wants to build the most complete visual history of the sport’s first 100 years, and it is asking professionals and the public to help assemble it.

The contest has two strands. Professional photographers are being invited to submit standout images from the 1970s onward, with each decade meant to be represented by pictures that capture drama, personality and the wider culture around the sport. For the earlier decades, the search is broader and more communal. Fans, families, former players, clubs and national associations are being asked to unearth photographs from the years before the 1970s and bring them back into circulation. That makes the awards more than a gallery project. It is a call to preserve the texture of the game’s past, from early international scenes to the moments that shaped how table tennis looked and felt across generations.

The entry process was deliberately open. Submissions are free, entrants can upload up to 10 images across six time-period categories, and the deadline is July 31, 2026. With the launch landing alongside the World Team Championships in the city where the sport’s international history began, the timing gave the project extra weight. It tied the centenary not just to competition, but to memory, discovery and the people who have been documenting the game from courtside for decades.

For the table tennis community, the awards point to a bigger question than who takes the best picture. They ask what kind of images will define the sport for the next generation. Elite match play will always matter, but so will the close-up frames that show speed, intimacy and personality, the kinds of pictures that can make non-players see the sport as something vivid and human rather than just fast points under bright lights.