Natalia Partyka

Early life Partyka began playing table tennis at the age of seven years. She won her first international table tennis medal in 1999 at the disabled World Championships. At the age of 11, when she competed at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, she became the world's youngest ever Paralympian. In 2004, she won a gold medal in the singles event and silver in the team event at the Athens Paralympics. Also in 2004, she won two gold medals at the International Table Tennis Federation's European Championships for Cadets, which was open to able-bodied competitors. In 2006, Partyka won three gold medals at the European Paralympic Championships, one gold and two silvers at the International Paralympic Committee's Table Tennis World Championships for Disabled, and a silver in the team event at the ITTF European Junior Championship. She also won two silver medals and one bronze at the 2007 edition of that competition. Also in 2007, Partyka won three gold medals at the European Paralympic Championships, and a bronze at the ITTF World Junior Teams Championships.

Olympics and Paralympics performance Partyka competed for Poland both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing – one of only two athletes to do so, the other being Natalie du Toit in swimming.

In 2008, she won a gold medal in the singles event and a silver in the team event at the Beijing Paralympics, repeating her Athens Paralympics result.

She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. In the Olympics, she competed in women's singles table tennis. On 3 September 2012 Partyka defeated China's Qiang Yang 3–2 in the gold medal match to become Paralympic champion. On 8 September 2012 she won bronze in the women's team class 6–10, after defeating France 3–2.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics she competed in the women's team event and later won her fourth consecutive Paralympic singles gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Awards and recognitions For her sport achievements, Partyka received: