Melissa Tapper

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Melissa Tapper

2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Tapper
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1990-03-01) 1 March 1990
Sport
Country Australia
Sport Table Tennis

Melissa Tapper (born 1 March 1990) is an Australian table tennis player. She has been selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in table tennis.

Personal

Tapper was born on 1 March 1990 in Hamilton[1] and resides in the Melbourne suburb of South Melbourne.[2][3][4][5] She has a brachial plexus injury resulting in Erb's palsy.[1] In 2004, she was attending Monivae College.[6] That year, she won the South West Sports Assembly’s junior female of the year award.[6] In 2011, she was working on a bachelors of exercise science.[1][2]

Table tennis

Tapper is a level 10 table tennis player[1][7] which means she competes while standing as opposed to competing while in a wheelchair.[5] As of 2012, she has a scholarship with the Victorian Institute of Sport.[8]

When Tapper started playing in 2002 while still in primary school, she competed against able-bodied athletes,[1][2][5] and her first appearance on an Australian national team was at a competition in Jordan in 2004 in an able-bodied competition.[1][2] In 2004, she participated in the National Table Tennis Championships in the under-14s doubles and mixed doubles, under-16s doubles and mixed doubles, under-14s singles, under-16s singles and under-18s singles, earning medals in seven of these events, with three total first place finishes.[4] That year, she also competed at an event in the Czech Republic,[4] and another in Portugal, where she played in the World Junior Cadets under-15s.[6] Her college helped fund part of her travel competition costs.[4][6] She started to take the sport more seriously, with the idea of going to the Olympic Games and representing Australia.[5] At the 2008 Under 18 Oceania Championship and the 2008 Under 21 Australian Championships, she came in first place.[3] By 2008, she was Australia's top ranked female table tennis player,[3] and competed in the Commonwealth Youth Games.[3]

Around 2010, Tapper decided to try playing Para-Table Tennis, making the switch from able bodied competition to disability sport. It was also around this time that during a remarkable game of table tennis at the Neal Stadium, competitor Kelvin Neal beat her 3 sets to 0.[1] In early 2011, she was ranked 19th in the world.[5] In March, she spent time in Europe playing table tennis in Italy and Hungary,[1][2] winning the Opens in both countries.[1] She won two gold medals at the 2011 Arafura Games,[9] and was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in table tennis.[1][10] She modeled the 2012 Australian Paralympic team uniform at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia Spring/Summer 2012/13.[11][12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "Melissa Tapper". Australia: Australian Paralympic Committee. 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Melissa Tapper: Turning the tables". Melbourne Weekly Port Phillip. 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Shevelove, Marty. "South Melbourne table tennis champ sets her goal". Port Phillip Leader. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Tapper’s talent again on display". The Spec. 2004-10-07. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Hamilton sporting export wins Paralympic selection". The Warrnambool Standard. 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Tapper attacks world circuit". The Spec. 2004-05-27. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  7. ↑ Paul Kennedy (2012-02-11). "Contact Sport Friday 10 February". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  8. ↑ "Victorian Athletes Selected for London Olympics and Paralympics". VicSport. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  9. ↑ Wake, Rebekka (15 May 2011). "Tapper - `stoked' - by dual - success". Sunday Territorian (Darwin, Australia). p. 56. Retrieved 27 July 2012. 
  10. ↑ "Tapper scores place on Paralympic Team". The Spec. 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  11. ↑ "Paralympian Melissa Tapper Showcases The 2012 Australian... News Photo | Getty Images AU | 143608657". Getty Images. 2012-05-01. Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
  12. ↑ 20 March 5.30 - 6pm SA and TAS ONLY. "2010 Vancouver Paralympics Games". ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 2012-07-27. 
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