When table tennis first joined the Olympic Games in 1988 most of the top players continued to regard the World Championships as the superior and more prestigious event. That is hardly surprising given that the World Championships have a history dating back to 1926 and a roll call of champions including many of the greatest players of all time.

But, by 1992 in Barcelona, everything had changed. The table tennis world had woken up to the unparalleled exposure granted to the sport by Olympic status and the unique qualities of the multi-sport quadrennial festival. There is no top player today who would deny that the Olympic gold medal represents the pinnacle of achievement in table tennis.

I have witnessed three of the five Olympic table tennis events to have taken place thus far, and the ambience is unique and intoxicating. Many of the greatest moments have been created by Jan-Ove Waldner: his destruction of the field in Barcelona remains one of the greatest exhibitions of virtuosity the sport has seen; his final match defeat to Kong Linghui in Sydney was probably, for sheer quality, the most captivating of all finals.

Waldner’s absence from Beijing is, naturally, disappointing (although he had to retire eventually!), but that does not mean we will be deprived of dramatic moments. The big question is whether the China team will complete a clean sweep of the gold medals. Given their strength in depth, it is nigh certain that they will win both team events – it is also next to inconceivable that they will fail to win the women’s singles.

That leaves the men’s singles, arguably the most prestigious event of all. Over the last five Games China has won only 2 gold medals in this event: Kong in Sydney and Liu Guoliang in Atlanta. South Korea also have 2: Yoo Nam Kyu in Seoul and Ryu Seung Min in Athens, leaving Waldner as the sole European winner in 1992.

The two European men best placed to scupper China’s hopes in the men’s singles are Timo Boll of Germany and Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus. Samsonov is a player of considerable class but, other than his early heroics at the World’s in Manchester in 1997, has always fallen short on the world stage – not least because of his undoubted tendency to become passive under pressure.

Boll is far more dangerous to the Chinese – his victory at the World Cup a few years ago when he won three successive matches against Chinese opposition demonstrates that he has the mental strength to win. His problem, of course, is that the men’s team from China has made extraordinary strides in recent months and years. For Boll to triumph will require him to play – by some margin - the best table tennis of his career to date.

The atmosphere in Beijing will be electric whatever happens. But for the global television audience, interest will be heightened if the likes of Boll and Samsonov can mount a credible challenge to Chinese domination. Perhaps their best hope is that the extraordinary weight of expectation on the shoulders of the China players will prove too heavy a burden. But they would be foolish to count on it.

Word from inside the Chinese camp

China's all-conquering table tennis team are gunning for total dominance in Beijing to cement their status as the sport's superpower.

With the Olympics on home soil and table tennis considered China's no1 sport, national pride is on the line.

Anything less than gold in all four events will be considered, by fans and Beijing officials alike, a failure.

Even a new system to be introduced at the Games - replacing the men's and women's doubles with team events - has not dented their resolve.

“I feel that we can perfectly fit into the new system,” said men's world No1 Wang Hao. “Our true enemy at the Beijing Olympics is not the new competition system but ourselves.”

China's most determined goal will be clinching gold in the men's singles - the only title they failed to win at the Olympics four years ago.

China were stunned in Athens when South Korean young gun Ryu Seung Min outclassed Wang, then the youngest member of team China at 20.

Since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1988, China have won all but four of the titles up for grabs.

Wang, now 24, will relish the chance to make amends and the Asian champion will be backed up by Ma Lin, a four-time World Cup winner, and three-time world champion Wang Liqin. The trio are considered virtually unbeatable in the team event.

But China head coach Liu Guoliang said: “Germany and South Korea are the strongest opponents of our team at the Olympics, especially at the men's singles.”

On the women's side, China are expected to take a vice-like grip, with world no1 Zhang Yining on track to defend her Olympic crown. Wang Nan, the most decorated player in the sport's history with 20 world titles, will be looking to steal the limelight at her last Games.