Lina Lei and Qian Yang Receive Order of Australia Medals

Table Tennis Australia (TTA) would like to congratulate Lina Lei and Qian Yang who earlier this month attended the Australia Day Honours and Awards Investiture ceremony at Government House Victoria where they were presented with their Order of Australia medals by the Governor of Victoria, the Honourable Linda Dessau AC.

The Order of Australia Medal recognises the achievements or service of an individual.

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

Lei 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-game thriller over China’s Xiong Guiyan.

Yang had a 3-1 victory over Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre in the Class 10 Women’s Singles in Tokyo. The 25-year-old also went on to win silver in the Class 9-10 Women’s Teams (with Lei and Melissa Tapper).

Lei who is also the Co-Captain of the National Para Squad said, “I felt so honoured to receive this award. It has motivated me to keep striving for success every time I represent Australia in the future”.