Gabriel Emiliano Copola (born January 20, 1984) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

para table tennis Para table tennis is a parasports which follows the rules set by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The usual table tennis rules are in effect with slight modifications for wheelchair athletes. Athletes from disability groups can ...

player with competition Classification 3. He plays for MdO (colonia Montes de Oca) in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. Copola's current ranking is world number 11 in class 3, his highest ranking was world number 5 in February 2016.

Career

A lover of sports, Copola had a bicycle accident when he was 11, which left him

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

. He began playing

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

in 1999 and made his international debut the same year, representing

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

at the

2011 Parapan American Games The 4th Parapan American Games took place from November 12 to 20 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Games are an international multi-sport event for athletes with a physical disability. The Games were held 20 days after the 2011 Pan American Games beg ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, where he won the gold medal in the Men's singles C3 competition and thus qualified for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Qualification guide (accessed 18-11-2011).

Career Record

Para Panamerican Championships

2011 Guadalajara: Men's Singles Class 3
2011 Guadalajara: Men's Team Class 5
2009 Margarita Island: Men's Team Class 5
2005 Mar del Plata: Men's Team Class 3
2005 Mar del Plata: Men's Wheelchair Open
2003 Brasília: Men's Team
2001 Buenos Aires: Men's Team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copola, Gabriel 1984 births Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Argentine male table tennis players Living people Paralympic table tennis players for Argentina Wheelchair category Paralympic competitors Sportspeople from Buenos Aires People from Ituzaingó Partido People with paraplegia Medalists at the 2011 Parapan American Games Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics 21st-century Argentine people Sportspeople at the 2019 Parapan American Games