Milly Tapper titles Para-Table Tennis Tokyo team

Paralympics Australia has nominated 11 members of the Paralympic Team for the Australian Paralympic Team, titled Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Melissa Tapper.

Tapper, who won a bronze as an able-bodied competitor at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, continued his history at Rio 2016, becoming the first Australian competitor in the Olympics and Paralympics, and has been re-elected to both Tokyo Games.

Adding three multi-gold medal-winning former Chinese representatives to the Australian para-table tennis team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has helped raise the level of the entire team as it tries to secure our nation’s first gold medal in sports for nearly 40 years.

Ma Lin, Lina Lei and Qian Yang with 10 Paralympic golds and six silver medals were among the 11 players confirmed by Paralympics Australia at a ceremony in Tokyo on Monday.

The team also includes the captain of the Australian Paralympic team Bull injury, the former No. 1 wheelchair world playing at his seventh Paralympics, and Sam for one, whose silver medal in the Rio unit’s Class 11 classification was Australia’s first medal in para-table tennis since Terry Biggs won gold in 1984.

You couldn’t ask for a better team, he said Joel Coughlan, one of the three team captains Tapperin and Nathan Pellissier.

Weve got Milly, who plays in both the Olympics and the Paralympics. Weve got Dann with a huge experience. He is amazing to talk and learn. You’ve got myself and Nathan, two other captains who haven’t been to the Paralympics before, but we’ve been on the team for a long time.

I’ve been on the Australian team since 2009, and it’s been great to see the whole group evolve and grow. The professionalism of the whole group is now very impressive.

Australian team chef Kate McLoughlin said: There was a huge competition for places on this team, so every player selected should be very proud. However, I know they feel their work is just beginning. There is a strong desire among players and staff to turn all this hard work into success at the Paralympic level.

I welcome 11 para table tennis players to the Australian Paralympic team and look forward to supporting them through the campaign.

Australian Paragliding Paralympic Team

With thanks Paralympics Australia and Table tennis Australia.