Tapper, Lei and Pellissier named as Co-Captains of the 2022 National Para Squad

Table Tennis Australia (TTA) is pleased to announce Melissa Tapper, Lina Lei and Nathan Pellissier as the Co-Captains of the National Para Squad for 2022.

It is the third year Tapper, who is Australia’s only Olympic and Paralympic representative, has been named as captain, while Pellissier also returns to the role for a second consecutive year and Lei joins the team for the first time.

Following on from their successes at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, it is set to be another blockbuster year for the National Para Squad with both the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (28 July - 8 August) and 2022 World Para Table Tennis Championships (6–12 November) on the cards. 

The Co-Captains will use their wealth of experience to lead Australia’s National Para Team over the next 12-months.

Tapper is excited to be back at the helm once again and is looking forward to continuing to build on the Team’s fun and strong high-performance culture.

“Our team is building a strong, hardworking and fun culture and it’s so rewarding to see the continued success of the team,” she said. 

Similarly to Tapper, Paralympic silver medallist Pellissier hopes to keep building on the high-performance environment.

“I’m very humbled to be selected in the leadership group alongside two very experienced world-class athletes in Melissa and Lina,” he said.

“I hope as a leadership team we can continue to build on the high-performance environment that TTA has created so that the whole squad can progress as athletes and people.”

Lei is hoping to form deeper relationships with her teammates this year.

“I'm looking forward to forming more relationships with everyone in 2022. Being named as one of the co-captains feels like everyone trusts me so hopefully, I can continue being involved in the team,” the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games gold medallist said.

TTA National Program Manager (Para) Sue Stevenson said she is looking forward to working with the athlete leadership team ahead of another major year for the squad.

“I am proud to see the trio elected as Co-Captains and am looking forward to working with them to navigate another really important year,” she said.
 
“It will be an important year for the National Para Squad with both the Commonwealth Games and the World Para Championships on the calendar and our Co-Captains will play an integral role in supporting their teammates to prepare for and perform at these major benchmark events.”