Will Bayley

Will Bayley is the former Class 7 singles Paralympic champion from Rio 2016 and, in 2024, is the current World and European champion.

Paris 2024 saw Bayley compete at his fifth Paralympic Games and took his medal tally to seven - this time claiming a silver in the men’s class 7 single event.

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.

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

• Singles - Class 7: Silver

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