It's been an interesting experience being in Australia then Singapore during the Beijing Olympics - and one that I will write more about in my table tennis blog tomorrow. But for now I'll just say that the media coverage of table tennis in Singapore has been at saturation point for the last 5 or 6 days - with table tennis literally front page news! And while much of the news has been focused on the Women's Team success, there has also been a cloud to this silver lining in the shape of the goings-on at the STTA, where one month old STTA President Lee Bee Wah has booted out the team manager, Antony Lee, and may also get rid of Singapore Head Coach, Liu Goudong. This all hit the news before the Olympians had even finished celebrating their medal. The public reaction to Lee Bee Wah's purge has been less than favorable. Here's a quick online sampling from The Singapore Sports Fan:

• Some foreign sports talents are more equal than others
• Damning quotes, damning facts
• Singapore table tennis - more (or less) - than meets the eye?

There are a number of positive benefits for table tennis from these Olympic Games - excellent media coverage, some entertaining matches, and hopefully greater exposure to the general public among them. I wonder whether table tennis associations around the world are ready for the hopefully large influx of new beginners inspired by the Olympic dream?

And finally, here's a question from that persistent little inner voice that keeps nagging at me - we already knew that China is the dominant nation in table tennis - the 2008 World Championships told us that. Was the Olympics less exciting due to that dominance? Would table tennis be better off if China decided to truly open up and share it's training techniques with the rest of the world, allowing more even competition? Or is China happy to be the top dog in a sport that the public may end up viewing as a peculiarly Chinese passion only?