By Matthew Sims
Timbarra P-9 College’s Year 7 to 9 cohort received a peek into the amazing world of the Paralympics, with a visit from one of Australia’s top para-athletes on Thursday, May 11 via the Victorian Institute of Sport’s (VIS) school speaker program ‘Be Fit. Be Well’.
Para-table tennis player Melinda Tapper has competed in three Paralympics and was the first Australian para-athlete to qualify for the Olympics and the Paralympics in the same year, qualifying in both the 2016 Rio event and the 2020 Tokyo event.
The visit was especially inspiring for Year 9 student Zander Marcuccio who also has Erb’s palsy.
Tapper told the students about her receiving a brachial plexus injury during birth, essentially damaging the major nerves in her right arm, resulting in Erb’s palsy or weakness or paralysis in parts of the arm.
She said she had developed the drive within herself to achieve anything, from tying her shoelaces with one hand to playing sport with one hand.
“As long as I can achieve the same outcome as everyone else, that’s all that matters,” she said.
“I was willing to keep sticking at something until I could do it.”
Tapper first picked up a table tennis bat in 2002, competing against able-bodied players and achieving high results in events in Jordan, Czech Republic and Portugal.
At the age of 19, the Australian Paralympics Committee approached her to ask her if she was interested in playing as a para-athlete.
Tapper was selected to play in the 2012 London Paralympics and then went on to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
The students were keenly interested in how it felt to achieve so much with a disability.
“No good things happen overnight,” Tapper said.
“When you want to make a change, it comes down to being consistent.
“I was not afraid to be different.”
Tapper told the students about her excitement in preparing for a bid to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, with plans to retire afterwards.
