Human Interest |
Further Personal Information |
Residence |
Melbourne, VIC, AUS |
Sport Specific Information |
Club / Team |
East Adelaide Table Tennis Club and SASI: Adelaide, SA, AUS |
General Interest |
Hobbies |
He enjoys all sports and plays racketlon during the off-season. Photography is also a major interest. (tabletennis.org.au, 17 Aug 2010) |
Memorable sporting achievement |
He won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2006. "It was like a dream come true," he said.(theage.com.au, 20 Aug 2010) |
Sport Specific Information |
Why this sport? |
He started the sport as a winter alternative to tennis. |
General Interest |
Awards and honours |
He was inducted in the Australia table tennis Hall of Fame in 2008. (theage.com.au, 20 Aug 2010) |
Sport Specific Information |
Name of coach |
Jens Lang [national] |
Preferred position / style / stance / technique |
Classic |
Handedness |
Right |
When and where did you begin this sport? |
He started playing table tennis at the age of six. |
Further Personal Information |
Occupation |
Information Technology, Athlete |
General Interest |
Nicknames |
Wookie. (smh.com.au, 27 Mar 2006) |
Other information |
TRAVELLER At the age of 14, William left his family and moved to Europe to improve his game, spending 10 years in Sweden and 2 years in Germany. (stt.org.au, 22 Oct 2009)
GAMBLE He has gambled his savings and job in a bid to represent Australia in London. "It was a huge decision to quit work. I had many sleepless nights before I took the plunge. I was working in an IT department when I decided to quit. I told the company that it was my dream to play a third Olympics." Since quitting his job he has spent the past 18 months training in Austria at the Werner Schlager Academy with head coach Richard Prause. (London info+, 17 Jul 2012) |