Mitchell Stephens
Competition | 2011
Hometown: Mount Juliet, Tennessee
Mitchell Stephens beat unusual odds to become a national and international champion in the sport of table tennis. He became a triple amputee (Both legs and right arm) from a train accident in1969. His father encouraged him to try playing table tennis, which he discovered he had a real talent for and he began to train seriously. As one of the fastest games played, Mitch was at a significant disadvantage, even in wheelchair play. Yet, at age 18 in 1973, only four years after his injury, he came in second in the semi-finals at the National Wheelchair Games in New York to a 16 year old phenom named Mike Dempsey. Mitch remained a perennial silver medalist to Mike Dempsey in the open events, but he was the consistent National Champion in class 5.
Playing in the years that he did, his opportunities for international play were limited by the fact that he was ineligible for International Stoke Mandeville competition due to the nature of his disability. Mitch got his opportunity to compete internationally in 1980 on the first USA National multi-disability team in Paralympic history and he won the gold medal in Arnhem, Holland in the amputee class C1. From that point onward, Mitch was able to maintain a consistent national championship status in Class Five nationally and a silver medal status in the Open Category, only losing to Mike Dempsey in that event.
He went on to participate in the 1984 Paralympic games held in New York where he won a silver medal in amputee class L2. Mitch was an amazing talent in the sport with consistency and tenacity in play.
In 1988 he took his court skills to a larger field and began to participate in wheelchair tennis. He took a second place in the quad division of the Music City Lightning Wheelchair Tennis event held that year. In addition, he was involved with the Music City Wheelchair Basketball team which went on to win a National Championship in 1989.
