Interesting Fact # 862 - The Olympics

The Beijing Games are the last time table tennis players will be allowed to use speed glue to re-fix the rubber surfaces to the racket or paddle.

(So called speed glues contain volatile organic compounds, and expose the players to potentially harmful chemicals. However, not everyone is happy about the ban, seemingly gas produced by the chemicals seeps into the bat's rubber covering and stretches the rubber giving it a tension that in turn makes the ball behave like an object meeting a trampoline, hence the term speed glue. Critics charge that the glue ban is a veiled attempt to slow the rapid-fire sport. The ban was supposed to take place as of 1 September 2007, but the date was moved back to 1 September, 2008. From September the International Table Tennis Federation will introduce a doping test for bats - a device that can detect whether the illegal glue is present in the rubber covering.)

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