Piers Gilliver

On his Paralympic debut at Rio 2016 Piers Gilliver won ParalympicsGB’s first wheelchair fencing medal for 24 years, with silver in the Category A individual epee.

Piers first tried the sport of wheelchair fencing in 2010 at his local fencing club in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and he joined the British Disabled Fencing Association in 2011.

In July 2012, Piers was selected to fence for the British team and made his debut on the international scene placing a respectable 11th in the Category A epée event in Warsaw, Poland.

Piers was subsequently selected to experience London 2012 as part of the BPA’s Paralympic Inspiration Programme, to gain an insight into the unique environment of the Games.

In 2013 he was named Junior World Champion in the U23’s Category A epée. Having gone from strength to strength and claiming three back-to-back World Cup titles, Piers was the overall winner of the IWASF World Cup Series in 2014 in the epee event. He finished the 2015 season as World No1 in the individual Category A men’s epée – a ranking that he continued to hold at the time of his selection to ParalympicsGB. In total, he claimed nine podium places during the Rio 2016 qualifying period.

He has been on the podium on multiple other occasions at the World Championships, European Championships and on the IWASF World Cup circuit, and has ranked number one in the world for five years.

Piers won gold on the opening day of the 2019 Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in South Korea.

He claimed victory in the men’s individual Epee A division, beating Russia’s Artur Yusupov 15-9 for his first World Championship title. He added bronze in the Sabre A category a day later.

Piers’ brother Miles is a ballet dancer with the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games

• Individual Category A Men’s Epée: Gold
• Men’s Team Foil: Silver
• Men’s Team Épée: Bronze

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

• Individual Category A Men’s Epée: Silver