๐ŸŽ‚ Birthday Paradox ยท Sports
โ† All sports

Olympic Table Tennis

Delegation

125 team lists ยท 763 player entries ยท avg team size 6.1

Read this sport as a comparison between raw coincidence and what team size alone predicts. Here, the real rate is +2.9 points above the birthday-paradox baseline.

Real team lists
7.2%
teams with shared birthdays
Why it matters: This is the headline rate, but it should never be read without team size.
Expected from size
4.3%
from avg team size
Why it matters: This is the fair baseline: what same-size random teams would do.
Gap from expected
+2.9 points
real โˆ’ expected
Why it matters: Positive means the sport has more birthday matches than size alone predicts.
Team lists
125
teams analysed
Why it matters: Enough team lists for a useful sport-level read.
What to notice: The best question on a sport page is not "is the real rate high?" but "is it high after accounting for team size?" That is what the gap card is answering.

Country comparison

Countries with the most team lists for Olympic Table Tennis, charted by the share of teams with at least one shared birthday.

What to compare: This view is best for spotting sample-shape differences inside a sport. Among the highest-sample countries, KOR has the highest observed rate, with an average team size of 7.2.

Gender split inside this sport

Real and expected rates for labelled team lists in this sport.

Why it matters: The gender gap is mostly a team-size story. Women have the larger average team size here (6.3 athletes), so their birthday-match rate naturally rises.

By country

Top 40 countries by team-list count.

CountryTeam listsAvg playersReal
CHN97.10.0%
KOR97.233.3%
JPN87.312.5%
GER86.50.0%
AUS76.30.0%
USA66.20.0%
TPE65.816.7%
HKG66.30.0%
AUT55.80.0%
SWE55.80.0%
NGR56.40.0%
EGY55.40.0%
BRA45.80.0%
FRA45.80.0%
PRK46.50.0%
RUS35.30.0%
CAN35.30.0%
SGP35.70.0%
BLR25.0100.0%
ESP25.00.0%
GBR26.00.0%
POR25.00.0%
ROU25.00.0%
HUN25.00.0%
ALG15.00.0%
CRO16.00.0%
CHI15.0100.0%
CUB15.00.0%
EUN16.00.0%
ITA15.00.0%
IOA15.00.0%
FRG16.00.0%
NED16.00.0%
POL16.0100.0%
TCH15.00.0%
URS15.00.0%
YUG15.00.0%
What to notice: Countries with larger average teams will naturally show more shared birthdays. The country list is most useful for finding which samples are driving this sport's overall rate.

By gender

Where the dataset records it.

GenderTeam listsRealExpectedGap
Women765.3%4.6%+0.7 points
Men4910.2%4.0%+6.2 points

Sample team lists

Largest teams in the dataset.

TeamSeasonPlayersRepeatsExpected chance
KOR Table Tennis (2004 Summer) ยท KOR2004 Summer919.5%
JPN Table Tennis (2004 Summer) ยท JPN2004 Summer817.4%
KOR Table Tennis (2000 Summer) ยท KOR2000 Summer817.4%
TPE Table Tennis (1988 Summer) ยท TPE1988 Summer614.0%
KOR Table Tennis (2016 Summer) ยท KOR2016 Summer614.0%
POL Table Tennis (2016 Summer) ยท POL2016 Summer614.0%
BLR Table Tennis (2000 Summer) ยท BLR2000 Summer512.7%
BLR Table Tennis (2004 Summer) ยท BLR2004 Summer512.7%
CHI Table Tennis (2000 Summer) ยท CHI2000 Summer512.7%
AUS Table Tennis (2000 Summer) ยท AUS2000 Summer909.5%
What to notice: The sample team lists show the mechanics: once the player count gets large, the expected chance climbs quickly, and each repeat is another player landing on a date already present.