Nico Blok (born 13 July 1981) is a retired

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

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 who competed in international level events. He is a Paralympic bronze medalist, three-time World medalist and a double European silver medalist.

Personal life

When Blok was born in a hospital in

Gouda, South Holland Gouda () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, between Rotterdam and Utrecht, in the province of South Holland. Gouda has a population of 75,000 and is famous for its Gouda cheese, stroopwafels, many grachten, smoking ...

, doctors suspected that there was something wrong with him after he was born, it was later revealed that he was born with an unknown muscular disease. Due to this unknown muscular disease, he was prominently thin as he only weighed 40kg at a height of 1.77m and has also had limited muscle strength and walking long distances were impossible for him. Blok was very fascinated in sports at a young age: his older brother played soccer and tennis but it was too hard for Nico. His parents tried to find an alternative sport for him to participate in and when he was nine years old, he tried out table tennis and this was how he got his motivation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blok, Nico 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Gouda, South Holland Sportspeople from Utrecht (city) Paralympic table tennis players for the Netherlands Table tennis players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Dutch male table tennis players