Michael Dempsey

Michael Henry Dempsey (September 8, 1956 – April 29, 2009) was an American para table tennis player who competed in eight Paralympic Games. His best rank was world no.2 in class 4 in April 2001.

Biography When he was six months old, doctors discovered that Michael had a skin tumor on his back. A doctor gave him an injection to stop the growth but he had abnormalities with his legs as the tumor spread and attached onto his spinal cord resulting in loss of movement in his legs and was on a wheelchair for life.

Table tennis career Beginning He first started playing table tennis in 1969. He competed along with other wheelchair athletes "according to function based on spinal cord injury level or comparable muscle strength". Dempsey competed in the least disable category.

He was inducted into three halls of fame for sporting career: Ohio Wheelchair Athletic Association in 1981, the California Table Tennis Hall of Fame in 2001 and US Table Tennis Hall of Fame one year later. Dempsey was also a long time member of the San Diego Table Tennis Association.

Death On April 29, Michael flew to Ohio to attend a board meeting in Greif Inc., after his meeting, Dempsey was in the middle of laughing with others but in the middle of this laugh, Dempsey suffered from a large brain aneurism and was rushed to Riverside Methodist Hospital in San Diego, California where he was later pronounced dead shortly afterwards.