ATHLETE / NOC QUOTA
Athlete quota: 86 men + 86 women = Total of 172 athletes
Maximum per NOC: The maximum number of athletes per NOC shall be 3 men and 3 women in the individual events, and one men team and women team for team events.
QUALIFICATION SYSTEM
SINGLES – 64 men and 64 women
Sixty-four (64) athletes for each of the men’s singles and women’s singles events will qualify as follows:
20 ITTF World Ranking, with a maximum of two (2) players per NOC
40 Continental qualification system
1 Host nation direct entry
2 World Qualification Event
1 Tripartite Commission Invitation place
64 Total - with a maximum of three (3) players from the same NOC
1. ITTF World Ranking, January 2008
The top twenty (20) players on the first ITTF World Ranking (January 2008 World Ranking) published following the 2007 ITTF Protour Finals to be held in December 2007, will be qualified, with a maximum of two (2) players per NOC.
2. Continental qualification events
Players will be qualified through continental qualification events, held between August 2007 and April 15, 2008, according to the following distribution:
6 Africa
11 Asia
11 Europe
6 Latin America
3 North America
3 Oceania
40 Total
Each Continental Federation is responsible for holding its own qualification events but they must provide the ITTF with the planning of the qualification events (dates, places and number of players to qualify in each tournament) before December 31, 2006, as well as the names of the qualified players after each qualifying event according to the above quota and according to the established timelines.
3. Host nation
The host nation shall directly qualify one (1) place in each Singles event if not already qualified by Ranking or by Continental Qualification. If the host nation direct entry place is already filled through Ranking or by Continental Qualification, then one (1) additional place will be added to the Final World Qualification event.
4. World Qualification Tournament
The top two (2) players at the World Qualification Tournament will qualify for the Singles event.
Entries to the World Qualification Tournament will be limited to players who have otherwise not qualified by the ITTF World Ranking or by continental qualification. NOCs may only enter the same number of athletes as qualification places remaining, within the maximum number of three (3) per NOC.
The number of qualification places for the Singles events from this competition may be increased if the continental qualification allocation of 40 players is not reached, if the host nation direct entry place is not used and/or if the Team Quota (22 places) is not fully utilized.
5. Tripartite Commission (IOC-ANOC-ITTF) Invitation places
One place in men’s singles and one place in women’s singles shall be used by the IOC-ANOC-ITTF Tripartite Commission to allocate Invitation places, in accordance with the general process of the Tripartite Commission Invitations.
Eligible NOCs must apply for these invitation places prior to the deadline of 15 November 2007. The Tripartite Commission will, by 31 January 2008, establish which invitation requests meet the identified general criteria of NOC delegation size and technical standard, and provisionally allocate places to one male and one female player. The final allocation of Invitation places will be done from April - July 2008.
To be eligible to compete in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the players filling invitation places must have played in a Continental Championship or a World event. Should these places not be allocated due to the technical level of the players, they will be added to the places allocated through the Final World Qualification Tournament.
TEAM EVENTS - 16 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams
Sixteen (16) Teams for each of the Men’s Team and Women’s Team events will qualify as follows:
Top team from each Continent: 6
Host nation direct entry: 1
Remaining selected teams: 9
Total: 16
An additional quota of 22 places for men and 22 places for women are made available to complement (if necessary) the quota for teams that did not qualify three (3) players in the singles events through World Ranking Qualification, Continental Qualification, host nation direct entry or Tripartite Commission Invitation places.
Players who have been added to a team from the quota of 22 additional places may only play in the Team Event and shall not be entered in the singles event.
General remarks
Each player in a Team must be from the same NOC.
It is acceptable that a player in a Team not be entered in the singles event.
A maximum of one (1) men’s team and one (1) women’s team per NOC may be entered.
The Team selection will start after the Final World Qualification Tournament, once all the places for men’s singles and women’s singles events have been allocated.
Team selection
Following the Final World Qualification Tournament, the Team selection process will begin as follows:
1. Continental quota: Six (6) teams:
1 for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania.
One (1) team from each continent (six (6) teams) will be selected as follows:
a) For each continent, the highest ranked team with three (3) players from an NOC qualified for the singles events will form a team and will be designated the Continental Quota for that continent.
b) For continents where no NOC has three (3) players qualified in singles, the NOC with the highest ranked two (2) qualified players will be supplemented with a player from the Teams player quota (22) to form a Team of three (3) players.
c) For continents where no NOC has at least two (2) players qualified in singles, the NOC with the highest ranked qualified player will be supplemented with two (2) players from the Teams player quota (22) to form a Team of three (3) players.
d) The ITTF Computer Team Ranking method will be used to determine the order of Ranking of the Teams, taking into consideration the NOCs concerned only and the qualified players from those NOCs.
2. Host nation direct entry: 1 team
In each Team event, the host nation is guaranteed one (1) direct entry. If the host nation entry has not been selected as the continental quota, the necessary number of places from the Team events player quota will be allocated to complete the team if necessary.
3. Remaining teams: 9 (10 if the host nation is qualified by continental quota)
The remaining teams will qualify based on the following principles:
a) NOCs with three (3) players qualified for singles and NOCs with two (2) players qualified for singles will be part of the first selection.
b) If more than 9 (or 10) teams can be formed in this manner, then the top 9 (or 10) teams according to the ITTF’s World Team ranking method* will qualify. NOCs with two (2) players qualified in singles will be supplemented with one player from the Team players quota (22) to form Teams of three (3) players.
c) If less than 9 (or 10) teams can be formed in this manner, then NOCs with one (1) player qualified in singles will be supplemented with two (2) players from the Team players quota (22) to form Teams of three (3) players, in order of ranking, until the quota of 9 (or 10) Teams is completed.
d) The ITTF Computer Team Ranking method* will be used to determine the order of Ranking of the Teams, taking into consideration the NOCs concerned only and the qualified players from those NOCs.
*A Special computer Team Ranking list, only for the qualified teams, will be produced based on the individual ranking points of the team members as of the May 2008 ITTF Ranking list.
If the Team quota is filled using less than the 22 quota places for men and the 22 quota places for women, the remaining quota places will be added to the Final World Qualification Tournament and to the Olympic singles events in the qualification rounds before the main draw of 64.
QUALIFICATION TIMELINE
- December 31, 2006: Continental Federations will determine the Continental Qualification Tournaments for Singles and advise all their National Associations of dates and location of their qualifying events and the system of qualification.
- January 2007 ITTF will announce the Continental Qualification tournaments
- July 1, 2007- Period for holding the Singles continental
- April 15, 2008 qualification events
- July 11 - 23, 2007 All Africa Games, Algiers (ALG)
- July 21 - 27, 2007 Pan-American Games, Rio de Janeiro (BRA) - Note: The winner of the Men’s Singles and the Women’s Singles will be an automatic qualifier. This place will be deducted from the Latin American or the North American quota.
- November 15, 2007 Deadline for the submission of requests for Tripartite Commission Invitation places by all NOCs.
- January 2008 ITTF World Ranking list published following the 2007 Pro-tour Finals World qualifying first 20 players from this list.
- January 31, 2008 The Tripartite Commission will decide the provisional allocation of the invitation places.
- March 6 - 11, 2008 Asia Qualification Tournament, Hong Kong, China (HKG)
- March 30 - April 6, 2008 Latin American Championships, Santo Domingo (DOM)
- April 2 - 6, 2008 Europe Qualification Tournament, Nantes (FRA)
- April 4 - 6, 2008 North America Qualification Tournament, Vancouver (CAN)
- April 5 - 8, 2008 Oceania Qualification Tournament, Nouméa (New Caledonia)
- April - July 2008 The Tripartite Commission will allocate the invitation places and confirm, in writing, to the NOCs concerned.
- April 30 2008 Notification of qualified players by Continental Federations to the ITTF Headquarters
- May 1 - 18, 2008 Final World Qualification Tournament for singles.
- May 30, 2008 ITTF to confirm to NFs/NOCs the names of all qualified singles players, Teams and players only qualified for Teams events
- June 15, 2008 NOCs to confirm to ITTF the entry of participating players and Teams.
- June 30, 2008 ITTF to confirm the final allocation of all quota places.
- July 23, 2008 Deadline for Beijing 2008 Organising Committee to receive Entry Forms submitted by NOCs
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