William John Bayley (born 17 January 1988) is a British professional Paralympic

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

player, ranked world number 1. He is the 2016 Summer Paralympics Games gold medallist and the 2014 World Champion. From September 2019 Bayley participated in the seventeenth series of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'', paired with professional dancer

Janette Manrara Janette Manrara Škorjanec (born November 16, 1983) is an American singer, choreographer and professional dancer, and television presenter. She is best known for her appearances on the US series '' So You Think You Can Dance'' and British dance re ...

Personal life

Bayley was born on 17 January 1988 in

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sand ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. He was born with

arthrogryposis Arthrogryposis (AMC) describes congenital joint contracture in two or more areas of the body. It derives its name from Greek, literally meaning 'curving of joints' (', 'joint'; ', late Latin form of late Greek ', 'hooking'). Children born with one ...

which affects all four of his limbs. At the age of seven he was diagnosed with cancer. During his recovery he began playing table tennis after his grandmother bought him his first table.

Career

At the age of 12 he joined the Byng Hall Table Tennis Club in Tunbridge Wells, and went on to represent Kent's able bodied men's team. From the age of 17 he has lived and trained full-time at the

English Institute of Sport The UK Sports Institute,https://uksportsinstitute.co.uk/who-we-are/uk-sports-institute/ previously known as the English Institute of Sport (EIS), established in May 2002, is an organisation which provides sport science and medical support servi ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. He represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, China, where he was knocked out of the

C7 singles in the preliminary round after defeats against Germany's

Jochen Wollmert Jochen Wollmert (born 22 November 1964) is a German Paralympic table tennis player. He won his first individual Paralympic medal, a bronze, at the 1992 Summer Paralympics. Since then he has won individual gold at the 2000 and 2008 Summer Paraly ...

and Ukraine's Mykhaylo Popov and a single victory against Shumel Shur of Israel. He also competed in the C6-8 team event along with Paul Karabardak and David Wetherill; they were eliminated at the quarterfinal stage. In 2009, he won gold medals at the Czech and German opens, in 2010 he took golds in Lignano and Brazil. Bayley won a gold medal in the singles at the 2011 European Championships in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

, Croatia. He also won a silver medal in the men's Team event class 7, playing alongside Karabardak. At the end of 2011 he was voted the European Players' Player of the Year and in January 2012 he achieved the world number one ranking. Bayley won a silver medal in the London 2012 Summer Paralympics after losing to Germany's Jochen Wollmert in the class 7 final. At the Rio

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

, Bayley won his first Paralympic gold medal after beating home-favourite Brazilian Israel Pereira Stroh. He received a yellow card for jumping up onto the table in celebration. Bayley again won silver at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games, his third successive Paralympic medal. He went on to win silver in the team event, where he had a rematch in the final against

Yan Shuo Yan Shuo (, born 26 July 1995) is a Chinese para table tennis player. Career He won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in the men's C7 event. In the delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympi ...

, who he lost his olympic title to a week earlier. Bayley was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2017 New Year Honours The 2017 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours were awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to table tennis.

''Strictly Come Dancing''

From September 2019 Bayley participated in the seventeenth series of ''

'', paired with professional dancer

. The couple's

Contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

, to Lukas Graham's song " 7 Years", was dedicated to the patients and staff at

Great Ormond Street Hospital Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS F ...

, where Bayley had been treated for cancer, aged seven. Michael Hogan of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' said the pair "... didn't leave a dry eye in the house after their beautiful, barefoot contemporary dance." Due to a knee injury, sustained from a studio rehearsal, Bayley was unable to perform in week 6 (Halloween Week). Under the rules of the competition, he was given a "bye" to the following week, however, it was later confirmed that he had withdrawn from the competition. He said, "I'm gutted my Strictly journey has had to come to an end. I've loved being part of the show." :

Alfonso Ribeiro Alfonso Ribeiro (born September 21, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, singer, and television host. He is best known for his roles as Carlton Banks on the NBC sitcom '' The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'', Alfonso Spears on the sitcom ''Silver Spoo ...

filled in for Tonioli

References

External links