The City of Copenhagen has agreed to collaborate with Table Tennis Denmark and will invest around EUR 150,000 over the next two years to allow thousands of senior citizens to play table tennis in the Danish capital.

This initiative will also target the citizens who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease as well as dementia.

“I have played table tennis myself for many years and know that the sport is an ideal sport for our health, especially the senior citizens in our city,” said Cecilia Lonning-Skovgaard, Mayor of Copenhagen.

Table tennis is indeed a perfect activity for senior age groups. It is one of the most inclusive sports and studies show that table tennis stimulates the cognitive system, develops balance skill, increases blood circulation, and strengthens hand-eye coordination. Moreover, table tennis is one of the sports that most stimulates the cognitive system according to several studies.

“I am so pleased that there is political focus on our sport and its good effects, said Henrik Vendelbo, Chairman of the board of Table Tennis Denmark. “We want to get many more people to play table tennis, because we ourselves love the sport and its many opportunities. We have important experiences in the field and have already with great success launched initiatives for senior citizens over the age of 60 in many of our member clubs.”

“Our initiative with the City of Copenhagen now makes it possible for table tennis as a sport to provide an excellent supplement to the public health service to senior citizens with chronic illnesses. As a sports association we now take a clear health and social responsibility. It begins in Copenhagen. We expect to spread it to the rest of the country in the coming years”.

With an ever-growing aging population in the world, offering regular adapted physical activity and social interaction to these populations is becoming invaluable. WHO research speculates that 1.6 million deaths annually can be attributed to insufficient physical activity and that adults over 65 with poor mobility should perform physical activity 3 or more days per week to enhance balance and prevent falls.