Will Bayley
Athlete Information
-
Region
Brighton
-
Date of Birth
17/01/1988
-
Classification
Class 7 singles, class 14 doubles
Athlete main content
Bio
Will Bayley is the former Class 7 singles Paralympic champion from Rio 2016 and is the current World and European champion.
Born with arthrogryposis, a rare congenital disorder that affected all four of his limbs, Will underwent numerous operations at Great Ormond Street Hospital from the age of three months old. He returned to Great Ormond Street for chemotherapy when he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma at the age of seven and it was while recovering from cancer that his grandmother bought him a table tennis table.
He joined the GB Para Table Tennis team in 2006 and after representing ParalympicsGB at Beijing 2008 he returned to China on his own for several months to train with the best in the world.
Will won his first major title at the European Championships in 2011 and after earning world number one status in 2012, he went on to play the Paralympic final, where he lost to Germany’s Jochen Wollmert, who was the defending champion. He would become world champion in 2014 before famously climbing onto the table after his Paralympic triumph at Rio 2016.
He recovered from a serious knee injury to compete in Tokyo in 2021 and played superbly to take silver in the men’s class 7 singles, losing to the Chinese world number one Yan Shuo, and silver in the men’s class 6-7 team event.
Will attended the Brit School for Performing Arts in Croydon and appeared in a DVD ‘We’ve Got The Toaster’. In 2019 he won the hearts of the nation as a contestant on BBC TV’s Strictly Come Dancing and in 2022 he appeared in the BBC TV series The Pilgrimage. Will has two daughters with his partner Fiona.
Career Highlights
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games
- Singles - Class 7: Silver
- Team - Class 7: Silver
Rio 2016 Paralympic Games
- Singles - Class 7: Gold
- Team - Class 7: Bronze
London 2012 Paralympic Games
- Singles - Class 7: Bronze
- Team - Class 7: Silver
**2023 European Championships, Sheffield, England **
- Singles - Class 7: Gold
**2022 World Championships, Spain **
- Singles - class 7: Gold
2017 European Championships, Lasko, Slovenia
- Singles - Class 7: Bronze
2015 European Championships, Vejle, Denmark -
- Singles - Class 7: Silver
- Team - Class 7: Silver
**2014 World Championships, Beijing, China **
- Singles - class 7: Gold
- Teams - class 6-7: Bronze
**2013 European Championships, Lignano, Italy **
- Singles - class 7: Gold
- Team - class 6-7: Bronze
**2011 European Championships, Split, Croatia **
- Singles - class 7: Gold
Join the ParalympicsGB movement
![image](/assets/img/logos/website.png)
Related Articles
5 September 2024
Heartbreak for Bayley after spectacular final
17 July 2024
11-strong ParalympicsGB table tennis team confirmed for Paris 2024
3 September 2021
Today in Tokyo - Day 10
2 September 2021
Bayley and Karabardak win ParalympicsGB's seventh Tokyo table tennis medal
2 September 2021
Today in Tokyo - Day 9
1 September 2021
Today in Tokyo - Day 8
1 September 2021
Karabardak seals dramatic team table tennis victory
30 August 2021
Bailey guarantees first table tennis medal at sixth Paralympic Games
29 August 2021
Today in Tokyo - Day 5
28 August 2021