Table Tennis star Melissa Tapper to make history by completing at dual Games in Rio
MELISSA Tapper is off to the Olympics, twice. Yep, that’s right, the table tennis star will become the first Australian to complete at dual Games in Rio.
MELISSA Tapper had never heard of the Paralympics.
But in September, the Victorian is a serious medal chance in the sport she is the first to admit didn’t come naturally to her.
There is however a little event that needs to be taken care of before the 15th Paralympics kick off.
She’s competing at the able-bodied Olympics in Rio too.
Tapper, 26, is the first Australian to qualify for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is in full swing to launch her assault on the table tennis event at both after finally realising her dream.
The Australian Paralympic Committee came into her life “just at the right time” as a teenager and Tapper says Rio being a reality is still quite surreal.
“I didn’t know that there was a Paralympics and I didn’t know that it competed internationally and I didn’t know that it was really strong fields,” she said, having grown up in Hamilton in Victoria’s west.
“I was mid-teens and had grown up being treated the same as everyone else, being told I’m just like everyone else — never that I had a disability.
“I still see myself like that, but I’ve learnt to embrace everything I have and I absolutely love it.”
Nerve damage in her arm known as Erb’s palsy — sustained at birth — means Tapper has just 30 per cent use of her right arm.
Her parents, Diane and Charles, bought the three Tapper children a table tennis table for the family holiday house, and as the youngest sibling — then eight — struggled to take it up to her older brother and sister.
“I was no good at it, so they wouldn’t let me keep playing with them,” she laughs.
Fast-forward to her teens and after time playing junior pennant in Hamilton, Charles was making near-weekly trips to Melbourne before Tapper moved to the big smoke at 14 to take things a little more seriously.
“(A few years later) I was doing well, and I’d maybe competed once or twice overseas but I understood my level. I was going overseas and playing but I was getting flogged,” Tapper said.
“Even though I was losing I was so motivated because I wanted to be better and I wanted to be more competitive. From there, it slowly got there, but I dreamt of making an Olympics but did I actually think I would go and get to compete in it? No, I only dreamt it.”
Her last professional hitout is this week on home turf, with some of the world’s top table tennis players converge in Melbourne for this week’s Australian Open at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
Qualifying for both Games “wasn’t vaguely even a thought” but after missing out in Athens, Beijing and London — where she finished just off the podium in the Paralympics — there is sweet relief.
She will travel to Rio with the Australian Olympic team next month, but will return to Australia for two weeks before returning to Brazil for September’s Paralympics.
A delicate balance is in play as Tapper, ranked fourth in the world in her ITTF Para Table Tennis class — looks to both enjoy the Olympic experience but also have one eye on the Paralympics podium.
“I’ve still got a bit of time ahead and I think when the time comes I believe I can get the results that I need,” she said.
“It’s a really tough challenge.
“I’ll have the high of the Olympics and then will have to reset and really get focused again. That’ll be a nice little challenge for me.”
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No matter the Games, there’s one thing that’s for sure — there’ll be plenty of fight from behind the smile.
“My style is quite attacking — I don’t have overly long rallies,” Tapper said.
“When the time comes and I really need to fight my way through a match, I think that’s my greatest attribute — fighting to the last point.”
Originally published as Table Tennis star Melissa Tapper to make history by completing at dual Games in Rio
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