Sam Von Einem

Samuel Von Einem was an avid tennis player before relocating to Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2003. Due to the heat, his parents kept a table tennis table inside their house and he began playing table tennis instead.

He first represented Australia in 2011 at the ITTF Junior Circuit in Dededo, Guam, and in 2015 he became eligible for Paralympic Games qualification.

Making his Paralympic debut in Rio the following year, Samuel won Australia’s first medal in table tennis in Paralympic or Olympic competition since Terry Biggs’ gold in 1984. Coached by David Lowe, Sam defeated Frenchman Lucas Creange and South Korean competitors Byeongjun Son and Gi-Tae Kim to meet Belgian Florian Van Acker in the final. With a 3-2 result, he played incredibly well to take home silver.

At his second Paralympics at Tokyo 2020, the 26-year-old claimed the Men’s Singles class 11 Para-table tennis silver medal, after losing a tightly contested 5-game match against 2012 Paralympic champion Peter Palos of Hungary (11-6, 7-11, 11-7, 6-11, 9-11).

Outside of training and competition, Sam enjoys playing tennis and soccer, and in 2015 he completed a Certificate IV in Bookkeeping at TAFE SA.