Paralympian Colin Judge was born with one arm and no legs – all his table tennis rivals at Paris have two arms

Reclassification is a fact of life for Para athletes; authorities can bounce competitors up and down the grades as they see fit and with little notice. However, when Judge was pushed from Class 2 to Class 3, it represented a quantum leap in terms of the standard of competition.

Suddenly, he had a decision to make – leave the sport behind or break down his game and start all over again.

Judge’s reclassification to a division where competitors have less severe impairments was a hammer blow. The Dubliner slipped from fifth in the world to 36th and lost part of his funding as he moved into the grade with the most depth of the five classifications.

“The hardest thing is I have to compete against athletes who are much physically stronger,” he explains.

“I have had to change my game completely, but the most positive way I can look at it is I’m a much better player because of it. No matter how I am measured, I know I’m a much better player than I ever would have been had I stayed in Class 2. I do enjoy competing in Class 3. It’s a big challenge and it’s the biggest class in para table tennis.

“I would have been very backhand-oriented when I was in Class 2. I suppose to keep it simple, my game in Class 2 was no longer good enough really to compete at the best level in Class 3, so I knew I needed to play more forehand and be a lot more versatile and basically play at a better level. I realised that pretty quickly.”

The 29-year-old was born with one arm and no legs and the extent of his achievement becomes clear when he points out that everyone in his Olympic class has two arms and can move their chair.

“I suppose disability is a really difficult thing to quantify. I think I’m quite unique in para table tennis. I was born with one arm and no legs, so there wouldn’t be any athlete at the top level competing with one arm and no legs, so I suppose I fell through the cracks a little.

“I was classified into Class 2 and they were even looking at Class 1 for me for a while when I was younger. I’m in Class 3 now and I think the biggest disadvantage I have is not being able to move the chair. All the people that have qualified for the Olympics have two arms and can move the chair quite well.”

Despite that, Judge has rebuilt his game and is now back in the world’s top ten players. A strong performance at the upcoming Czech Open could propel him into the top eight, giving him a first-round bye in Paris.

That would be welcome, as Paralympic table tennis uses an unforgiving straight knock-out format. However, Judge will travel with confidence, having recently taken the world number one to the wire, losing 11-8, while also beating the world number three at the French Open.

He might have turned his back on table tennis, but the comeback is already greater than the setback.

“When your back is to the wall, you could give up, but that wasn’t an option for me. I had just missed Rio and had been in London with my Dad and knew this was what I wanted to do – to compete in the sport I love on the biggest stage.

“I’m grateful to have been in Tokyo and have the experience behind me and I’m really excited now for Paris.”