JUDGE Colin

Classification
TT3 (ipttc.org, 24 Aug 2021)

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (LinkedIn profile, 24 Mar 2020)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (LinkedIn profile, 24 Mar 2020)

Impairment Details
He was born without legs and with one arm. (LinkedIn profile, 24 Mar 2020)

General
CLASSIFICATION CHANGE
In 2019 he was reclassified from TT2 to TT3 following a classification review. "I was classified into class 2 at the age of 13 and I presumed that would never change but after I won the [2017] European Championships, I was up for a classification review which I thought was just protocol at the time. I didn't really expect that anything would change. But when I went into the reclassification, the doctors said that they were really sorry that they were going to have to move me up into class 3. That was really tough to take. That meant I would lose my ranking, lose my funding, I would be competing against athletes that were physically stronger and worst of all, my qualification hopes for Tokyo 2020 were seriously in jeopardy. My ranking went from fourth to 26th. It's been really tough to take and I was really bitter about it at the time. When I was in class 2, I was a bit protective of what I had and I was only really interested in winning rather than improving and I think with that attitude, I never would have reached my potential anyway. So class 3 has taught me that I need to be better, I need to reinvent my game and I've changed a lot of things." (punditarena.com, 23 Mar 2021)

GOING FULL-TIME
After his reclassification in 2019 he decided to leave his job as an actuarial analyst in order to focus full-time on his table tennis career. "It was a very tough decision to make because I was very happy at KPMG [the company he worked for] and they were hugely supportive of me. It was obviously a good job, it was well-paid. I had to become better and I knew I wasn't going to reach my potential working full-time in KPMG, working 50-60 hours a week and trying to study on top of that. It wasn't very good for my table tennis. It was a tough decision to make, but I've no regrets. I went on sabbatical from my job and I'm playing a better level now [early 2021] than I ever would have been before." (punditarena.com, 23 Mar 2021; the42.ie, 27 Mar 2021)

IMPACT OF SPORT
He credits the role of table tennis in helping him to accept his impairment after going through a tough period in childhood. "It's hard to put into words. As a 13-year-old boy, I was really struggling with my disability. I was in an able-bodied school, I had a lot of good friends, but felt I couldn't really relate to them. I suppose I was quite jealous of what they could do. I wasn't really aware of my disability in the earlier years but it became really apparent when they were doing rugby and lots of other things that I couldn't do. Table tennis changed my life. It was the first time that I had a passion and a drive, something that made me realise that for all the things I couldn't do, there was a hell of a lot that I could do." (punditarena.com, 23 Mar 2021)