Three players who, by competing in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, had participated in every Olympics since Table Tennis was introduced in Seoul in 1988 and, thus, had been present at six consecutive Olympic Games were honored by the International Table Tennis Federation at a special presentation ceremony held in the Peking University Gymnasium in August.

One month later, at the Beijing Paralympic Games, no less than ten athletes who had competed in the Table Tennis events at six consecutive Paralympic Games were recognized for their achievement.

The celebrated names are: Ernst Bollden of Sweden, Manfred Dollman of Australia, Arnie Chan of Great Britain, Kwong Kam Shing Francis of Hong Kong China, Lee Hae-kon of the Republic of Korea, James Rawson of Great Britain, Neil Robinson of Great Britain, Rainer Schmidt of Germany, Monika Sikora-Weinmann of Germany and Zhang Xiaoling of China.

In fact Lee and Chan have more than six appearances to their names.

Lee has competed in seven consecutive Paralympics, while Chan has also been present in seven, but not consecutively. He made his debut in 1980 but did not compete in 1984.

"It's just such a huge event, a global event; it's a celebration of years of hard work", said Robinson. "It gives Paralympic athletes a world stage. There is huge media interest; it shows we work just as hard as Olympic athletes."

All three British athletes who gained the award cited Barcelona in 1992 as their outstanding memory.

"I won gold in the team event with Neil, it was a special time", reminisced Rawson. "Also in Seoul, Table Tennis was huge, now to come here, it is an incredible feeling."

Meanwhile, Chan remembered Barcelona for a different reason.

"I won the bronze medal in the individual event", he said. "That was very special; it was my first Paralympic medal."