Laurens Devos (born 15 August 2000) is a Belgian table tennis player who was the

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the ''Games of the Paralympiad'', is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities, including impaired muscle power and impaire ...

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 Oostmalle is a village which is located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The village itself is part of the municipality of Malle. Oostmalle was an independent municipality until 1976. It has a surface area of 28.27 km² and in 2004 had 6,5 ...

. The son of Mario Devos and Christel, he has 2 brothers and a twin sister, Isabel. His 6 years older brother

Robin Devos Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') **Bush-robin **Forest rob ...

is as of 14 September 2016 the second-highest ranked able-bodied Belgian table tennis player, ranked number 119 on the World Ranking. Caused by a lack of oxygen at birth, Laurens suffers from mild

hemiplegia Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different medic ...

which results in a loss of mobility on the right side of his body. He plays left-handed. He studies at the Topsportschool in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

, where he is the only student with a disability.

Sporting career

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). He won the 2015 European Championships in Vejle, Denmark. He is national table tennis champion in his age category (able-bodied category). 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. At the 2016 ITTF Star Awards, Devos won Male Para Table Tennis Star, the award for Paralympic table tennis player of the year. Devos reached the first round of the 2016 World Junior Table Tennis Championships, but then lost 4-3 from the Austrian Andreas Levenko. On 17 December 2016, Devos was named the Paralympian of the Year at the Belgian Sportsman of the year ceremony. He won his first world championship title in 2018 in Lasko,

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

by defeating Iurii Nozdrunov of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

External links

*
Laurens Devos - Cœur Handisport

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devos, Laurens Living people 2000 births Paralympic table tennis players for Belgium Paralympic gold medalists for Belgium People from Malle Paralympic medalists in table tennis Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Belgian male table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Sportspeople from Antwerp Province