![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nationality | Belgian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Malle, Belgium | 15 August 2000||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home town | Oostmalle, Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Para table tennis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disability | Mild hemiplegia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disability class | C9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Sokah Hoboken | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coached by | Carlo Agnello | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Laurens Devos (born 15 August 2000) is a Belgian table tennis player who was the Paralympic champion in men's singles class 9. He has also won four European titles and most recently, a world title for his country.
Laurens Devos lives in Oostmalle. [1] [2] The son of Mario Devos and Christel, he has 2 brothers and a twin sister, Isabel. His 6 years older brother Robin Devos is as of 14 September 2016 the second-highest ranked able-bodied Belgian table tennis player, ranked number 119 on the World Ranking. [3]
Caused by a lack of oxygen at birth, Laurens suffers from mild hemiplegia which results in a loss of mobility on the right side of his body. [4] [5] He plays left-handed. He studies at the Topsportschool in Leuven, where he is the only student with a disability. [6]
Laurens Devos was ranked world number 2 in his class before going to the Paralympics. In 2014 he won the GDF Suez Trophy (the award for most promising young Belgian para-athlete). [7] He won the 2015 European Championships in Vejle, Denmark. [1] [2] He is national table tennis champion in his age category (able-bodied category). [5] [6]
With his victory over Dutch Gerben Last in 3 straight sets, Devos became the youngest player ever to win table tennis gold at the Paralympics. [8]
At the 2016 ITTF Star Awards, Devos won Male Para Table Tennis Star, the award for Paralympic table tennis player of the year. [9]
Devos reached the first round of the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships, but then lost 4-3 from the Austrian Andreas Levenko. [10]
On 17 December 2016, Devos was named the Paralympian of the Year at the Belgian Sportsman of the year ceremony. [11]
He won his first world championship title in 2018 in Lasko, Slovenia by defeating Iurii Nozdrunov of Russia. [12]
The Miss Belgium is a national beauty pageant in Belgium. The winner of Miss Belgium automatically represents her country at the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants if the dates do not overlap.
Timo Boll is a German professional table tennis player, who currently plays for Borussia Düsseldorf. He is currently ranked 182th in the ITTF world rankings as of January 2024. Boll is the most successful German table tennis player of all time, having won several medals at Olympic Games, world cups, and world championships. He was ranked world No. 1 in 2003, 2011 and in March 2018.
Jean-Michel Saive is a Belgian former professional table tennis player. Saive competed at seven consecutive Olympics between 1988 and 2012, and he was also a winner in singles at European Championship 1994.
Natalia Dorota Partyka is a Polish table tennis player. Born without a right hand and forearm, she participates in competitions for able-bodied athletes as well as in competitions for athletes with disabilities. Partyka reached the last 32 of the London 2012 Olympic women's table tennis.
Daniela "Danni" Di Toro is an Australian wheelchair tennis and table tennis player. Di Toro was the 2010 French Open doubles champion and has also been the Masters double champion. In singles, Di Toro is the former world number one and two time masters finalist. In 2015, she moved to para-table tennis and represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, where she was team captain with Kurt Fearnley. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, her sixth Paralympics, she was the team captain and Opening Ceremony flag bearer with Ryley Batt.
Melissa Tapper is an Australian table tennis player. After competing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, she represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in elite non-Paralympic competition. In March 2016, she became the first Australian athlete to qualify for both the Summer Olympics and Summer Paralympics.
Rebecca Julian is an Australian table tennis player. She has represented Australia at three Summer Paralympics - 2008, 2012 and 2020 in women's doubles and singles table tennis.
Omar Muhammadi Muhammad Muhammad Assar is an Egyptian table tennis player. He won silver in singles and gold in team play at the 2011 Arab Games in Doha. He also competed at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics in the Men's singles, but was defeated in the second round on both occasions.
Hugo Marinho Borges Calderano is a table tennis player from Brazil. In January 2022, he peaked at number 3 in the world rankings, becoming the greatest Americas player of all time.
Nigeria competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. Nigeria's delegation of 23 sportspeople was mostly composed of powerlifters, with the country sending 14 lifters to Rio. Ahead of the Rio Games, the National Sports Commission promised Paralympic medals to erase the country's Olympic shame.
Egypt competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. The country sent a delegation of 44 sportspeople. The team included 16-year-old Ayattalah Ayman, the youngest member of the delegation and the first woman to represent Egypt in swimming. It also included 41-year-old Ibrahim Al Husseini Hamadtou, the only table tennis player to compete while holding the paddle in his mouth.
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran is an Indian table tennis player, who is the highest ranked Indian, currently ranked at 89 in the world as of November 2022. He was a member of the Indian team that won back to back gold medals in the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Peter Genyn is a Paralympian sportsman from Belgium. Initially Genyn competed as a wheelchair rugby player before switching to track and field athletics in 2014 where he competes in category T51 sprint events. In 2016 he became the world record holder in the T51 men's 400 metres sprint.
Marieke Vervoort was a Belgian Paralympic athlete with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. She won several medals at the Paralympics, and she received worldwide attention in 2016 when she revealed that she was considering euthanasia.
Ma Lin is a Chinese-Australian table tennis player who has only a left arm.
Belgium competed in the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan from 25 August to 6 September.
Tajudeen Agunbiade is a Nigerian para table tennis player of class 9 and Paralympian.
Alabi Olabiyi Olufemi, also known as Femi Alabi, is a Nigerian para table tennis player and Paralympian.
Indonesia competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan. Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, the Games were rescheduled for 24 August to 5 September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ha! van Humo is a yearly award offered since 1980 by the Flemish magazine Humo to the best television show of the year. The winner, chosen from 10 nominees, receives 5,000 Euro and a sculpted "H". In the first years, the show has also been given a few times to a TV maker and to a radio show instead of a television show. In 1997 and 2014 there were 2 winners, in 2012 no award was presented.