Lina Lei and Qian Yang receive Australia Day honours

Table Tennis Australia (TTA) would like to congratulate Lina Lei and Qian Yang on being recognised in the 2022 Australia Day Honours List with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

Lei and Yang were two of 35 Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists receiving an OAM, which recognises the achievements or service of an individual.

Lei and Yang led Australia to its first Paralympic Table Tennis gold medal in over 37 years after winning their respective women’s singles finals at Tokyo 2020. 

Lei, who was recently named as national para team co-captain, became the first Australian to claim Paralympic gold (Class 9 Women’s Singles) in table tennis since Terry Biggs at New York/Stoke Mandeville 1984 after winning in a five-set thriller over China’s Xiong Guiyan.

Yang made it two from two just an hour later with a 3-1 victory over Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre in the Class 10 Women’s Singles. The 25-year-old went on to win silver in the Class 9-10 Women’s Teams (with Lei and Melissa Tapper) before capping off 2021 with the Arthur Wilks Award as the Australian Para Player of the Year.

There were 732 awards in the General Division of the Order of Australia, 47 per cent of recipients being women, making the highest percentage since the awards began in 1975.

“Congratulations to the outstanding Australians recognised in today’s Honours List. Collectively the recipients, whose achievements span community service, science and research, industry, sport, the arts and more, represent the strength and diversity of Australia,” Governor-General David Hurley said.

“To the individuals being celebrated today; thank you for your contribution to Australia and congratulations on being recognised by your peers and your nation,” he added.