Ross Wilson
Ross is a table tennis player who has won medals for both England and Great Britain at the Paralympic Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and European Championships.
On a family holiday to Centre Parcs, at seven years old, Ross played table tennis for the first time. A member of staff, observing Ross’s skills and his Arsenal shirt, declared him to be “the Thierry Henry of table tennis”. It was a bold statement at the time but Ross’s medal haul is starting to resemble that of the iconic Henry.
Ross won two National doubles titles and was ranked in the top ten in the country as a junior, able-bodied athlete. However, he was injury-prone to the extent that he spent a lot of time in hospital from a very young age. Ross and his family got an explanation for these issues when, in 2011, he was diagnosed with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (a.k.a. MED or Fairbank’s disease). The transition into disabled sport was seamless. A silver medal at the European Championships in that same year earned him qualification for the London 2012 Paralympics, where he won another silver (at just seventeen years old) in the men’s class 6-8 team event.
Achieving similar success at the next Paralympic Games seemed unlikely when Ross suffered a series of injuries and was forced to spend two years away from the sport. To his immense credit he fought back to win bronze at the European Championships in 2015 and gold at the Paralympics in 2016. Ross embodied the highs and lows of athlete life as injuries continued to be his unwelcome companion. He was forced to take further time away from competition in 2017 but still bagged another bronze at that year’s European Championships.
2018 was a golden year for Ross - he reached new heights with gold medals at the British Para Table Tennis Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the World Para Table Tennis Championships. The Commonwealth gold, coming in the wake of his persistent injury troubles, is something that Ross has cited as his greatest achievement. As reigning world champion, Ross added to his medal collection with his second European silver (2019) and his third Paralympic bronze (2021). Another bronze followed at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games of 2022.
In recognition of his sustained success, Ross has been inducted into the Hall of Champions at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield.