China pulled off an historic clean sweep at the Olympic table tennis, cementing their status as the superpower but raising concerns about the sport's future.

China won all six medals in the men's and women's singles plus two golds in the team events for eight out of eight possible medals.

With countries allowed only one men's and women's team in that event, which replaced doubles in Beijing for the first time, their rivals enjoyed success by claiming the minor medals.

Singapore, led by Li Jia Wei, celebrated silver in the women's team event after going down to China in the final, handing the city-state its first Olympic medal in any sport for 48 years.

Germany, led by world number six Timo Boll, were also satisfied with silver after they were thumped by China in the men's team final.

South Korea took bronze in both men's and women's teams, but suffered an upset early when Olympic champion Ryu Seung-Min was dumped from the men's singles in his first match.

China, boasting the world's top four players on the men's and women's side, were in a league of their own, coming good on their promise before hand to whitewash the tournament.

"Because of the hard effort of the women's and men's teams these past few days, you can see only one coloured national flag rising up to the roof of the gymnasium, that is the miracle we have created," said head coach Liu Guoliang.

Tradition of table tennis

While China, where table tennis is the national sport, has traditionally dominated the Olympic tournament introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games, they, nor any other nation, have ever before pulled off such a clean sweep.

Their shadow was so great that only two players from other nations, Singapore's Li on the women's side, and Swedish veteran Jorgen Persson on the men's, reached singles semi-finals.

"I played well but it's hard to break the Chinese wall," 42-year-old Persson, who has played at all six Olympics in his quest to win a medal, said after losing the bronze medal match to China's Wang Liqin.

Gold in the men's singles for world number two Ma Lin was a dream come true after years of choking at the crunch in big events.

"(But) without experiencing great pain, I would not experience great joy," he said of his scorching win over teammate Wang Hao, 24, who for the second Olympics straight was forced to settle for silver.

On the women's side, Zhang Yining won back-to-back gold after success in Athens, beating retiring veteran and teammate Wang Nan, while young-gun Guo Yue took bronze.

But concern is mounting that such a stranglehold will dent public interest, particularly outside of China where the sport competes with others for television ratings and crowd support.

"In general, it is a very big concern," International Table Tennis Federation president Adham Sharara said just before Saturday's matches, adding that ratings on Chinese television during the Olympic finals were excellent.

"We do not want to limit Chinese participation, but we need other nations to grow to challenge them. Sharara said now that Olympic competition was over, Chinese sporting officials have promised to share their exceptional coaching techniques with other countries, possibly through a new academy in Beijing," Sharara said.

"The level of coaching in European and other countries has not kept up with the level in China," he said.