Welsh Legend Neil Robinson Calls Time on Paralympic Career

Former Paralympic champion Neil Robinson, who won seven Paralympic medals as an athlete before becoming an integral part of the British Para Table Tennis coaching team has announced his retirement after an incredible career during which he represented Great Britain in 11 Paralympic Games, seven as an athlete and four as a coach.
 
“This is a very difficult decision given my long-term involvement with British Para table tennis,” said Robinson, “but I feel the time has come to retire and have the flexibility to spend more quality time with my family, even more so now that my wife Karen and I are grandparents.

"I love the sport of table tennis so I intend to stay involved and to continue working with BPTT when required and I will look at helping to develop established and new players individually.”

Robinson was training in the electrical field at Bridgend College, with the ambition of joining the Merchant Navy, when he was a passenger in a car accident at the age of 18 that left him wheelchair bound and changed the course of his life.

After taking up table tennis during rehab he went on to become one of Britain’s most successful Paralympians, representing his country as an athlete in seven Games, winning seven medals including gold in the men’s class 3 team event in Barcelona in 1992, and was European champion and World number one.

In 2012 he received an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for his services to the sport.

Having retired from playing after the Paralympic Games in Beijing in 2008, Robinson was asked to help prepare the British Para table tennis players for the challenge of a home Games in London 2012 under the direction of new Performance Director Gorazd Vecko.

“To be honest I tried to convince him to play again,” said Vecko, “but he said no.

"When I started in 2009 the target of four medals in London after no medals in Beijing seemed like mission impossible so I was trying to convince Neil to start playing again so that we could have a good chance for at least one medal.

"But Neil stayed on as a coach and he made huge progress with players especially in Wales but also in Sheffield and contributed to a massive improvement in the wheelchair players.

“With his experience and his knowledge especially about the wheelchair game it was massively important to keep him involved in the sport that he loves.

"We have different coaches with different personalities and Neil Robinson is the gentleman coach.

"How he approached everything was totally different to other coaches and he brought so much positive energy to the team.

"We started to develop the family structure, and he was a big part of that because he was like a father figure to the athletes - taking care of them, trying to make everything right for them and to support them in the best possible way.”

READ MORE: Neil Robinson

With several Welsh players in the British squad Robinson set up a centre at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff with a professional training environment where the Welsh players could benefit from top quality coaching on a full-time basis in between training camps at the BPTT base in Sheffield.

“This was really important,” said Vecko.

“When we started with the new structure the Welsh players came to Sheffield for a training camp and for the rest of the time there was no coaching in Wales at the highest level. When I look back, I think that Neil was a huge part of every medal that was achieved by a wheelchair player from Wales over the last 15 years.

"He coached Paul Davies to win a bronze medal in London and also Tom Matthews to take bronze in Tokyo 2021.

"These are the two biggest achievements for Neil and although he wasn’t in the corner with Rob Davies when he won gold in Rio he had been a big part of his preparation and achieving our biggest result for wheelchair players.”

Robinson can look back on many highlights in his long and distinguished career.

“I am very proud to have had a positive influence in the lives of the athletes that I have been involved with and contributed to some of their life changing moments,” he said.

“There have been many memorable moments at the Paralympics Games - the standout moments for me as an athlete are in Barcelona 1992 where I won gold and silver medals, and Atlanta 1996 in achieving silver and bronze medals.

“Another incredible moment came in the semi-final of the team event against France in Athens 2004 where I was 10-2 down in the 5th set against Jean-Phillips Robin, a French legend, and I somehow found a way to win the set 13-11 and the match 3-2 to take us through to the final.

"Table tennis is sometimes a crazy sport, and this also taught me that you should never give up.

“As a coach, again there are several amazing memories - coaching Paul Davies to an unexpected singles bronze medal at the ‘home games’ in London 2012 and years of preparing Rob Davies to achieve his singles gold in Rio 2016.

"The circumstances surrounding Tokyo 2021 and then coaching Paul Karabardak, Tom Matthews and Megan Shackleton to their first Paralympic medals was really special to me.

"I am extremely proud to have won seven Paralympic medals as an athlete but working closely with and helping athletes achieve their Paralympic dreams gives me a greater feeling of satisfaction.” 

READ MORE: Neil Robinson

World and Paralympic medallist Tom Matthews acknowledged that Robinson has been a “massive influence” on his career.

“I was first introduced to Neil in 2013 after I had done well in San Diego and we started working together,” he said.

“He had a massive role to play in my improvement, and he has done ever since. Neil’s knowledge of the game, especially the wheelchair game is unmatched, and it is very inspiring what he has achieved not just as a player but as a coach as well. Neil has been phenomenal, and he is going to be massively missed.

“Winning bronze in the World Championships in Slovenia in 2018 was a rollercoaster match as I was 2-0 down but the biggest one with Neil has got to be the Paralympic bronze in Tokyo with all the emotions.

"At one point we didn’t know if we were going due to Covid but we went out there and he helped me massively in achieving that dream.

“Neil understands the game really well having played for so many years himself and I think he recognises when a player is under stress and needs a critical time out or needs a bit of advice like ‘calm down’ or ‘reset’.

"Those little words in the corner – they are his biggest attributes as a coach.

“As a person he is just a lovely genuine guy. Neil has a granddaughter now, so his family has grown and he is always joyful to show you pictures of them.

"He is a proper family man, and he brings that into table tennis. He really cares about you as an athlete, and I think that is what we are going to miss most - the care he has for athletes and just being a genuine nice guy.”

READ MORE: Neil Robinson Is The Quiet Big Man Of British Para Table Tennis

In addition to being a valuable member of the coaching team Robinson has earned a reputation as the life and soul of every party.

“We will miss his singing for sure,” said Vecko.

“In Rio 2016 when we went out on the last night to a bar Neil got us all singing. He always starts with Hey Jude because it is his favourite song - I was looking around and all the people from Brazil were singing with us and the atmosphere was unbelievable.

"At the end of the World Championships in 2014 in Beijing they tried to organise a party with some music but there were no drinks and so I said to Neil, ‘do some karaoke singing’. He refused but after half an hour he said, ‘give me the mic’ and we could not get it away from him after that.

"Rob Davies and the Swiss player Silvio Keller were singing with Neil for the rest of the night, and I will never forget it.

“We will not allow him to get away from British Para table tennis and we want to include him in all things.

"He will still be around the team and be part of the coaching team in Wales – he will come to some tournaments, and we will invite him to training camps to be part of the team.

"He deserves to be part of the team for as long as he wants to be.”