Olympics or Paralympics? Rather than choose, this star does both

As the Olympic Games came to a close in Paris, three-time Olympian Melissa Tapper bid farewell to her Australian teammates flying home. While the rest of the team would have to wait four years for their next chance at competing for a medal, Tapper would need just two weeks.

At Rio de Janeiro eight years ago, Tapper became the first Australian athlete to compete at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. After recently featuring in Paris, the table tennis star is now gearing up for her fourth Paralympics appearance.

Melissa Tapper only recently competed at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Getty Images

Reaching the Olympic and Paralympic Games is a rare achievement, with only about a dozen athletes worldwide accomplishing this feat. Among them are Tapper, New Zealand archer Neroli Fairhall, and controversial South African double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius, who was later imprisoned for the shooting death of his partner.

Complications during childbirth meant Tapper was born with a brachial plexus injury after the nerves between her neck and right shoulder were torn, leaving her right hand with nerve damage.

Tapper says she has limited strength and movement in her arm and little to no wrist control, all of which impact her ability to stay balanced and counteract her movements.

“I’ve had to work really hard on my serve to be able to still make that effective with what I can do. I also had a brace made on my right hand when I was around 16 years old that I pretty much wear all the time because it gives me more strength and stability in everyday life, but also in my table tennis,” she says.

Tapper competed in the able-bodied competition until 2009 before she was classified into the para-table tennis class 10 category at 19.

As the first Australian athlete to compete in both the Olympics and the Paralympics, Tapper says she tackles both with equal fervour, and choosing between the two would be “impossible”.

“It’s like asking me who do I love more out of my mum and dad,” she says.

“No matter who I play, my goal is to try and win. I was really happy with my performance at the Olympics, so I’m trying to replicate that again for the Paralympics.”

Tapper, alongside her teammates Michelle Bromley and Jee Minhyung, made it through to the women’s team round of 16 in Paris. Tapper fought to the very last point against Chinese Taipei opponent Chen Szu-Yu who was ranked nearly 200 spots higher than her.

Growing up in country Victoria, the 34-year-old from Hamilton says she never viewed herself as having a disability. She was still subject to the same house chores as her older siblings, and was never made to feel any different.

“It taught me to be quite resilient and problem-solve at an early age,” she says.

“I’m addicted to trying to better myself. There’s definitely a lot of perfectionism inside what I do. It’s about just seeing what is possible and what I’m capable of … showing people that have a disability that great things are possible.”

Tapper competes in class 10 for para-table tennis.Credit: AP

Tapper says she first encountered table tennis when she was eight and her parents brought a table tennis table home to their holiday house. Tapper says she initially wasn’t very good and her older siblings refused to play with her.

From there, she continued to improve, picking it up in primary school with regular junior competitions and continuing into high school, where everyone from students to the school principal took turns trying to beat her. By that point, Tapper’s parents were spending their weekends driving from Hamilton to Melbourne for her matches – a seven-hour round trip.

Tapper claimed silver at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in the class 9-10 women’s team event in front of empty stands during the pandemic. She says the return of spectators for Paris was nothing short of amazing.

“What I got to experience in Paris the other week, it felt like I was walking out inside a Gladiator scene. It was absolutely awesome, so I’m hoping that’s going to be the same for the Paralympics.”

Team Australia athletes Na Li Lei, Melissa Tapper and Quian Yang took home silver at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.Credit: Getty Images

To qualify for the Olympic Games, Tapper went undefeated through the Table Tennis Australia qualification trials to secure her spot. It is the first time Tapper has ever won the qualification trials, and she says it has given her a sense of confidence that she hopes to carry over into the Paralympics.

Tapper says she feels she is competing on “borrowed time”, and that Paris may very well be her last appearance at either Olympic or Paralympic level.

“I’m very happy with my career, and I definitely want to stay involved in table tennis, but in terms of competing, I don’t foresee that being for much longer,” she says.

“I didn’t even know if I was going to have the opportunity to be able to qualify for either the Olympics or the Paralympics, so getting to be here is just a fantastic achievement for myself. For me, that’s enough now.”

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