Year in Review: National Para Program

The year 2020 was meant to be a year like no other for TTA's National Para Program. While the year was like no other – one never to be expected – the team is still celebrating success, with new milestones reached which will ensure further success in years to come.

Victory began in February this year, with a medal haul at the Spain Para Open, where the team collected 3 gold (Ma Lin – Class 9 Mens Singles; Yang Qian – Class 9/10 Womens Singles; Melissa Tapper, Yang Qian & Lei Lina – Class 9/10 Womens Teams), 1 silver (Melissa Tapper – Class 9/10 Womens Singles ) and 2 bronze (Sam von Einem – Class 11 Mens Singles; Ma Lin – Class 9/10 Mens Teams), finishing third on the medal table.

While competition was immediately put on hold in March due to the pandemic, the winning culture of the team had been set, as TTA received the news that the largest ever contingent of para table tennis athletes had qualified for Tokyo. 11 National Squad Members had secured their place – more than double the team size in Rio. There's still potential for the team size to grow further too.

As athletes celebrated their triumphs, so did the staff and the program. The National Para Program received the news of a $150,000 funding boost for the 21/22 financial year, and on top of this the Australian Institute of Sport offered grants to ensure the Program’s continued growth.

Out of this, the National Para Program’s staff expanded from 2 to 4, as Maggie Meng stepped in as National Coach – Performance Pathway (Para) under Head Coach (Para) Alois Rosario, and Kara Retford took on the role of National Pathway Development Officer (Para).

Together, the team expanded its pathway programs and in the short space of 6 months, securing 6 new pathways through rehabilitation centres and disability programs, in an attempt to find new talent and grow the sport at all levels.

TTA National Program Manager (Para) Sue Stevenson said it made her extremely proud to reflect on the Program’s achievements in a year where so many sports had no choice but to put their progress on hold.

“There wasn’t a sport this year that didn’t suffer the consequences of Covid-19 but I’m extremely proud of our National Para Program for what it has both endured and achieved,” Stevenson said.

“We started off the year achieving some sensational results, which was promising for the Tokyo Games, and despite no more international competition taking place this year, the success stayed with our team as they were forced to bunker down and focus on training.

“I’m also incredibly excited that we’ve been able to lay the foundations of our program, with new staff members and areas of growth in pathways. The work done in this area means we will come in contact with more people with disabilities who want to play table tennis, and we’re looking forward to meeting new talent along the way.”

While competition wasn’t possible from March onwards, the focus turned to improving the support to the athletes and coaches in their daily training environments. Paralympics Australia provided invaluable support in the areas of remote coaching, skill acquisition, match analysis, classification, nutrition and sport psychology. 

The investment from Commonwealth Games Australia throughout 2020 also supported the important proof of concept research work into the development of an automated match analysis system for table tennis.  

Stevenson said that the growth of the program would not have been possible without the support of Sport Australia and the Australian Institute of Sport, Paralympics Australia and Commonwealth Games Australia.

“On behalf of TTA, I’d like to thank our funding partners Sport Australia, Paralympics Australia and Commonwealth Games Australia for their significant investment in our Program, and the AIS for their contributions through the Solutions Grant and the Infrastructure Grant, which will allow us to keep up our momentum,” she said.

“We’re looking forward to a big year ahead – even bigger than what we expected this year to be, and I know our athletes are ready to take centre stage as Tokyo once again approaches.”