Welsh Para-table tennis legend Robinson retires

Neil Robinson, the Welsh Paralympic champion, will retire after a successful career that included 11 Paralympics victories as an athlete and four as a coach.

At the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, Bridgend-born Robinson, 66, won gold with the men’s C3 team and silver with the women’s singles competition.

Before retiring after the Beijing games and beginning his coaching career in London 2012, he also won medals in Atlanta, Sydney, and and Athens.

Given my long-term involvement with British Para Table tennis [BPTT], Robinson said, “I think it’s time to retire and have the flexibility to spend more time with my family, especially now that my wife Karen and I are grandparents,” Robinson said.

When Robinson was a passenger in a car accident at the age of 18, Robinson was unable to use a wheelchair while he was training to become an electrician for the Merchant Navy.

He became one of Britain’s most successful Paralympians after starting table tennis in rehab and claiming seven medals in seven games.

Robinson won the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List award in 2012 for his contributions to the sport, and he was also a champion of Europe and world number one.

With a number of Welsh players in the British squad and having switched to coaching, Robinson established a facility at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff to provide top-notch coaching full-time.

Gorazd Vecko, the director of BPTT performance, said, “This was really important.

The Welsh players initially traveled to Sheffield for a training camp before the new structure, but there was no top level coaching in Wales.

“When I look back, I believe Neil was a significant contributor to every medal that a wheelchair athlete from Wales has won over the past 15 years,” Neil said.

Paul Davies won the bronze medal in London under the guidance of Robinson, and Tom Matthews won the bronze medal in Tokyo 2021.

One of his highlights is still Rob Davies’ gold medal victory, despite the fact that he wasn’t in the corner when another of his players competed in Rio.

“I’m very proud to have had a positive impact on the lives of the athletes I’ve worked with and helped to some of their most significant moments,” Robinson said.

The Paralympics Games have had a number of memorable moments, with the most notable ones coming from Barcelona in 1992, where I won gold and silver medals, and Atlanta in 1996, where I won silver and bronze medals.

As a coach, Paul Davies has “a few amazing memories,” including helping him win an unexpected singles bronze medal at the “home games” in London 2012 and years of preparation for Rob Davies’s pursuit of his singles gold in Rio 2016.

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to coach Paul Karabardak, Tom Matthews, and Megan Shackleton to their first Paralympic medals, given the circumstances surrounding Tokyo 2021.