It's a full circle moment for Australian table tennis legend Melissa Tapper as she aims for one last Olympic Games when the qualifiers are held in Ballarat starting on Friday, May 17.
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Tapper, originally from Hamilton in Victoria's western district, has spent the past eight years at the top of the sport in Australia. Should she win through to Paris, it will be her third, and what she says will be her final, Olympic Games.
The Australian selection has a new format for this year's qualifiers with two round-robin groups of five to play-off against each other in four matches on Saturday, with the top three from each group going through to Sunday's finals.
Tapper, now 34, was the first Australian to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal at the Gold Coast in 2018. She is also a Paralympic silver medallist and two-time World Para Table Tennis Championships bronze medallist.
She is one of the few athletes to compete at both Olympic and Paralympic level due to Brachial plexus palsy in her right hand.
In Tokyo she competed in the Olympic teams event alongside Jian Fang Lay and Michelle Bromley where the Australian team reached the round of 16.
"It's going to be a tough challenge to do, if I'm able to come through with the goods, I'd be pretty stoked to have had a good eight-year reign within the top three in Australia," Tapper said.
"It's a great privilege and honour every time you make a team, so I'm just going to try and do my best."
Tapper said the new format would test all competitors with up to seven matches needing to be played across two days in order to earn selection.
"This is a different format to what we've gone through previously, there will be two groups, five in each, and I'm in the second group. After day one the top three will come out and play the top three from the other group," she said.
Australia already has two team members selected, with Nicholas Lum and Min Hyung Jee having pre-qualified as part of the mixed doubles event in Queensland late 2023.
Tapper said she had done everything she could to be prepared for the showdowns in Ballarat this weekend.
"I'm feeling good, I've had a good lead-up," she said.
"I've had six weeks overseas playing quite a few para events and training.
"My team back here in Melbourne has prepared me the best we possibly could, now it's just a matter of turning up and putting it out there on the table."
Tapper is already nominated for the Paralympics but will have to wait until July to learn if she is once again on that team. "But right now, I'm focused on what I can do this weekend," she said.
She said returning to Ballarat felt like a homecoming.
"For me, it will be a great as Ballarat was the first ever state tournament I played in, so it will be kind of nice to be back there and will likely be the last place I'll play an Olympic qualifier in," she said.
"This is it for me, I'm 34 now, I've enjoyed my time and career and I think the time is right to enjoy life and enjoy some new challenges ahead."
