Michael Henry Dempsey (September 8, 1956 – April 29, 2009) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

para table tennis player who competed in eight

Paralympic Games 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 ...

. His best rank was world no.2 in class 4 in April 2001.

Biography

When he was six months old, doctors discovered that Michael had a skin tumor on his back. A doctor gave him an injection to stop the growth but he had abnormalities with his legs as the tumor spread and attached onto his spinal cord resulting in loss of movement in his legs and was on a wheelchair for life.

Table tennis career

Beginning

He first started playing table tennis in 1969. He competed along with other wheelchair athletes "according to function based on spinal cord injury level or comparable muscle strength". Dempsey competed in the least disable category. The U.S. Wheelchair Champion John Gray took 13-year-old Dempsey to the National Wheelchair Games in 1969. He competed as an unseeded newcomer however he successfully won his first gold medal after beating Serge Jelenevsky for the gold medal; this was one of Dempsey's first of thirty golds that he won in his career.

1970s and 1980s

In the early 1970s, Dempsey kept improving on his table tennis skills by competing against able-bodied players in his training club in his hometown by taking part in local competitions. In July 1971, Dempsey took part in his first international competition: he won a gold medal in Kingston. He went on to win five more Pan-Am Singles Championships titles. Dempsey's practiced his table tennis skills with a Stiga robot at home and he defeated his mentor Gray to win a national championship in Ohio and also won another title along with Gray in the doubles to win against Jelenevsky and Ty Kaus. In 1973, Dempsey was ranked no.1 among the young adult players of Ohio and ranked no. 6 in the male Ohio table tennis players category. He went to the World Championships in

Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

where Michael won 1st of his seven World's singles titles, this was also where he had beaten Sam Hagai for the first time after his defeat in the 1972 Summer Paralympics Games in Heidelberg, he also won the doubles title with Gray. Michael graduated in 1974 in

Gahanna Lincoln High School Lincoln High School is a public high school in Gahanna, Ohio, United States. It is in the Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools district. History The current school building opened in 1928 in what is now known as Lincoln Hall. Multiple expansio ...

, he awarded a Varsity sport jacket for "his achievements in table tennis and basketball" and was inducted into the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

for "his scholarship, character, leadership and service". In March 1974, Michael went to

Mount Airy Lodge The Mount Airy Lodge, built in the 1890s, was a five-star hotel and resort located in Paradise Township near Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. It was closed in October 2001 and demolished in subsequent years. The site now houses Mount Airy Casino Resor ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

to visit a training center so that he could be coached to compete against top 15 or above able-bodied juniors in the United States and he was hoping to join the US junior team that will play against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in a tournament. From 1975 to 1977, Dempsey and his teammate Fletcher went on to win a doubles title together in 1975. After 1977, Dempsey won six singles consecutively from 1977 to 1982 in not just his class but in open categories. In the early 1980s, Dempsey didn't win any singles or doubles titles in both Worlds' and Pan-Am Championships however he did win two golds and a bronze medal in 1985 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Winning major titles

Michael Dempsey won his first medals in the

World Para Table Tennis Championships The World Para Table Tennis Championships are the world championships for para table tennis where athletes with a disability compete. They are organised by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) on a four-year rotation with the Paralympic ...

in Assen,

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

: he won a silver medal in the singles by Thomas Kreidel and won a bronze medal in the teams' event by France who went on to win the title. During the 1990s, Dempsey won the most medals of his career in one event: three golds in the Para PanAmerican Games in

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 ...

. He won these medals in the singles, open singles and teams event along with Andre Scott.

Paralympics success

Dempsey first competed in the

1972 Summer Paralympics The 1972 Summer Paralympics (german: Paralympische Sommerspiele 1972), the fourth edition of the Paralympic Games, were held in Heidelberg, West Germany, from 2 to 11 August 1972. The games ended 15 days before the 1972 Summer Olympics held in Mu ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

at a young age of 16 where he was the youngest in the table tennis team. He won his first Paralympic medals: silver in singles match ( Sam Hagai of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

won the gold medal) and a bronze medal in the doubles along with Sam Fletcher. After his successful first competition at the Heidelberg Games, he was congratulated by the Ohio House of Representatives. In the

1976 Summer Paralympics The 1976 Summer Paralympics (french: Jeux paralympiques d'été de 1976), branded as Torontolympiad – 1976 Olympiad for the Physically Disabled, was the fifth Paralympic Games to be held. They were hosted by Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 4 t ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Dempsey won his first gold medal after defeating

alongside his teammate

Gary Kerr Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name *Gary, Indiana, the largest city named Gary Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;Uni ...

. He won a silver medal in the singles by being defeated by

Baruch Hagai Baruch Hagai ( he, ברוך חגאי; born 1944) is an Israeli paralympic champion. Early life Hagai was born in Tripoli, Libya, to a Jewish family of 13. At the age of two he contracted polio, and five years later h ...

from

. His third Games, the

1980 Summer Paralympics The 1980 Summer Paralympics ( nl, Paralympische Zomerspelen 1980), branded as the Olympics for the Disabled, were the sixth Summer Paralympic Games. They were held in Arnhem, Netherlands, from 21 to 30 June 1980. Background The Soviet Union, h ...

in Arnhem,

, he won a gold medal in the men's singles 4 by defeating Grady Uyt de Boogaardt of the

. He also won a silver medal with Kaus and Kerr in the teams' event. Dempsey performed poorly in the

1984 Summer Paralympics The 1984 International Games for the Disabled, canonically the 1984 Summer Paralympics were the seventh Paralympic Games to be held. There were two separate competitions: one in Stoke Mandeville, England, United Kingdom for wheelchair athletes ...

after winning a bronze medal in the singles event while the teams' event didn't win any medals. However, in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, he defeated Guy Tisserant to win the gold medal in the open singles and a bronze medal in the singles category 4 event.

Personal life

Michael met Shannon Kirk in 1978 while she worked in a bank: she worked alongside him while he was in a working partnership with Küschall, they both married on August 3, 1991. They travelled frequently around the world to places such as Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia. In December 2003, they adopted their infant son Henry from Kazakhstan. He was inducted into three halls of fame for sporting career: Ohio Wheelchair Athletic Association in 1981, the California Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2001 and USATT Hall of Fame one year later. Dempsey was also a long time member of the San Diego Table Tennis Association.

Death

On April 29, Michael flew to Ohio to attend a board meeting in Greif Inc., after his meeting, Dempsey was in the middle of laughing with others but in the middle of this laugh, Dempsey suffered from a large

brain aneurism An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel. Aneurysms in the posterior circu ...

and was rushed to

Riverside Methodist Hospital Riverside Methodist Hospital is the largest member hospital of OhioHealth, a not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare system located in Columbus, Ohio. As a regional tertiary care hospital, Riverside Methodist is host to a number of specialty cen ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

where he was later pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempsey, Michael 1956 births 2009 deaths Paralympic table tennis players for the United States Sportspeople from Columbus, Ohio Table tennis players at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 1984 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1980 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1984 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1988 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 1976 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in table tennis Paralympic gold medalists for the United States Paralympic silver medalists for the United States Paralympic bronze medalists for the United States American male table tennis players