TAPPER Melissa

Date of Birth: 1 Mar 1990

Age: 31

Gender: Female

Place of birth: HAMILTON, VIC

Birth Country:

Australia

Place of residence : MELBOURNE, VIC

Residence Country:

Australia

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Table Tennis	Mixed Doubles AUS HU Heming / TAPPER Melissa	9
	Women's Team AUS Australia	9

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Table 3	Mixed Doubles Round of 16 #3 FRA LEBESSON Emmanuel / YUAN Jia Nan 4 AUS HU Heming / TAPPER Melissa 0	Finished
	Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium Table 3	Women's Team Round of 16 #4 AUS Australia 0 GER Germany 3	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Olympic Games

Year	Location	Singles	Team
2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	Prel. Rnd	1R

World Championships

Year	Location	Doubles W	Doubles X	Team
2019	Budapest, HUN	1R	1R	-
2018	Halmstad, SWE	-	-	45
2016	Kuala Lumpur, MAS	-	-	53
2014	Tokyo, JPN	-	-	21

Oceania Championships

Year	Location	Singles	Doubles W	Doubles X	Team
2018	Gold Coast, QLD, AUS	2	1	2	1

ITTF World Tour - Eliminations per phase since 2017

Year	Event	W	RU	SF	QF	L16	L32	L64
2019	Doubles X	-	-	-	1x	-	-	-
2017	Doubles W	-	-	-	-	1x	-	-

ITTF World Tour - Ten best performances since 2017

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location
Quarterfinal	2019	Doubles	Australian Open	Geelong, VIC, AUS
Last 16	2017	Doubles	Australian Open	Brisbane, QLD, AUS

Legend
W - Winner, RU - Runner-up, SF - Semifinal, QF - Quarterfinal, 4R - 4th Round, 3R - 3rd Round, 2R - 2nd Round, 1R - 1st Round, Prel. Rnd - Preliminary Round, L16 - Last 16, L32 - Last 32, L64 - Last 64, M - Men, W - Women, X - Mixed

Milly (Athlete, 28 Apr 2015)

Occupation:

Athlete, Coach, Motivational Speaker, Office Worker

Education, Exercise and Health Science - Australian Catholic University, Australia

Languages spoken:

John Murphy [national - able-bodied], IRL; Simon Gerada [husband], from 2010

Left (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

Sporting relatives:

Her husband Simon Gerada competed in table tennis for Australia at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. He also represented Malta in the sport at the 2011 and 2013 Games of the Small States of Europe. (smh.com.au, 29 Mar 2016; clubhub.net.au, 07 Oct 2014)

Other sports:

She has competed in both able-bodied and Para table tennis for Australia. (melissatapper.com, 06 Apr 2016)

2004 for Australia, in Jordan (paralympic.org.au, 09 Sep 2012; theage.com.au, 22 Feb 2014)

National team:

2004 (paralympic.org.au, 26 Feb 2016)

She first tried table tennis at age eight. She began playing for her state team at age 12, and took up Para table tennis at age 19. (australiansportsnutrition.com.au, 06 Mar 2014; melissatapper.com, 06 Apr 2016; athletesvoice.com.au, 29 Apr 2019)

She tried table tennis as a recreational activity in primary school and was encouraged to continue playing by her gym teacher. She later made the move into Para table tennis after she was approached by Tim Matthews of Paralympics Australia and looked to represent Australia at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. (melissatapper.com, 06 Apr 2016; athletesvoice.com.au, 29 Apr 2019)

To win a gold medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (tokyo2020.org, 05 Nov 2020)

Winning a Para table tennis gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. (SportsDeskOnline, 09 Nov 2020; tokyo2020.org, 05 Nov 2020)

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer. (Athlete, 27 Jun 2016)

She says she gets nervous before matches, and listens to music to calm herself. (abc.net.au, 23 Aug 2012)

Philosophy:

"The harder you work, the luckier you get." (Athlete, 28 Apr 2015)

General Interest

Grip
Shakehand (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

Style of play
Attack (ITTF, 02 Aug 2016)

General
PARALYMPIAN
She has also competed in Para table tennis and made her international debut in the sport at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. She has a condition called brachial plexus Erb's palsy, which is the result of complications at birth. "I was 11 pounds 2 [ounces] when I was born, so I ended up getting stuck, pulled out by my right arm, and that tore the nerves between my neck and my shoulder." She had some operations on her arm to improve its movement range and strength, but her right arm still developed less than her left. She wears a brace on this arm to help stabilise the nerve. (melissatapper.com, 06 Apr 2016; abc.net.au, 22 Sep 2015)

OCCUPATION
She works as a receptionist for the Victorian Institute of Sport [VIS] in Melbourne, VIC, Australia. She also provides motivational talks, table tennis lessons and mini tournaments in schools and businesses across the state of Victoria in Australia. Since November 2014 she has worked as an ambassador for a school engagement programme called Standing Tall, which is based in Hamilton, VIC, Australia. (LinkedIn profile, 01 Jan 2020)

CLUB
She runs a table tennis club called 'Loops', with her husband Simon Gerada in Sunshine West, VIC, Australia. (Official ITTF Channel YouTube channel, 28 Aug 2019)

Milestones

She became the first Australian athlete to win gold in Para table tennis at the Commonwealth Games when she claimed victory in the singles class 6-10 event at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, QLD, Australia. (SportsDeskOnline, 04 Mar 2020)

She became the first Australian athlete to compete at both the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games when she competed in both competitions in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. (smh.com.au, 02 Sep 2016; SportsDeskOnline, 04 Mar 2020)

She became the first Australian Para athlete to compete in an able-bodied event at the Commonwealth Games when she won bronze in the team event at the 2014 edition in Glasgow, Scotland. (paralympic.org.au, 01 Apr 2018; SportsDeskOnline, 04 Mar 2020)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos