Paralympian #230 Matthew Britz made his Paralympic Games debut at Paris 2024, performing with pride in a narrow round of 16 loss in the French capital. We catch up with the Para table tennis ace to discover more about his sporting journey by focusing on a pair of very special training locations.
Matthew Britz is very lucky that both the New Plymouth Table Tennis Club and the Manurewa Table Tennis Club in South Auckland have acted as very welcoming homes throughout his time in the sport.
Born with Bailey-Bloch Congenital Myopathy he grew up dreaming of playing for the All Blacks. Raised in Taranaki he tried a range of sports from rugby to soccer, cricket to golf and swimming to horse riding but only found his true calling as an eight-year-old when first playing table tennis in the family garage.
“All the other sports gave me joy, and I enjoyed hanging out with friends and the social aspect, but table tennis gave me a sense of pride and acceptance and that this is something that I can truly do,” recalls Matthew. “Having grown up wanting to be an All Black I had indicated to my parents I wanted to be the best of the best and as soon I had a bat in hand I was thinking, I can be the best at this.”
Keen to develop his game he joined the New Plymouth Table Tennis Club where he recalls the excitement of the doors opening from 7-9pm but always wanted to play until 10pm. He started at the bottom of the pile. With the players ranked according to their ability – the best players on table one up to lesser players and novices on table five – he remembers in his early days taking on an 80-year-old man on table five.
Adopting a methodical and patient approach, he slowly progressed at the club before relocating with his family to live in the US at the age of 16.
“It will always be home, and it is where that eight-year-old dream started,” says Matthew of the New Plymouth Table Tennis Club. “As I was progressing in table tennis this coincided with when I was trying to figure out who I was as a person. I was born with a disability, I had people look at me sometimes and you start to question yourself. But New Plymouth Table Tennis Club was that place where nobody was different, we all just wanted to play the game.”
It was while playing for New Plymouth Table Tennis club during a tournament in Tonga when he was first invited to play Manurewa Table Tennis Club by specialist Para table tennis coach, John Tuki.
John, who still coaches Matthew today, saw great potential in the then 13-year-old and this acted as the trigger for the possibility of competing in Para table tennis.
“Up until that point I still believed in some small way that I was able bodied but by competing at Manurewa, I came to the realisation that I did have a disability and that I was a Para athlete. At the club, I saw others with a disability compete at a high level and that convinced me that this was the route I should take.”
Based today in Texas when Matthew returns home to New Zealand he often trains out of Manurewa Table Tennis Club and he is deeply indebted to the role both the South Auckland venue and New Plymouth Table Tennis Club have played in his career development.
“I always say New Plymouth Table Tennis Club gave me my table tennis family and Manurewa gave me my Para table tennis family – a place where I feel completely myself alongside others with a disability,” he explains. “We share close bonds and help each other out. We are one big Para family.”
To find out more about Para table tennis go here.
