British table tennis star Will Bayley has made mental health his number one priority as he chases the “ultimate achievement” of being Paralympic, world and European champion simultaneously.
Bayley clinched individual gold at Rio 2016 but had to settle for silver five years later in Tokyo when he felt “a bit fragile” amid the lasting impact of a serious knee injury suffered during rehearsals for Strictly Come Dancing.
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The world number one is in a “good spot” ahead of Paris 2024, having switched focus from “training like an animal” to giving precedence to his wellbeing.
He is determined to complete a clean sweep of medals at the Games, where he will be in doubles action this week before moving on to the class seven singles competition next Monday.
“I’m being more smart with my training; even though I train every day, I’m not training as much as I did before,” 36-year-old Bayley told the PA news agency.
“When I was training unbelievably hard, I never thought about my mental health.
“If someone had gone, ‘calm down, Will, it will be alright’, I’d be like, ‘no, I need to train, I need to practise, I need to do this and I need to that’ and I would have been really aggressive about it.
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“Now I think about how I’m feeling mentally as the first priority and then how I’m feeling physically as my second priority and then how I’m playing as my third priority.
“I’d had that all the other way around for most of my career and I got that wrong, I think.”
Bayley, who also won individual silver at London 2012, claimed his second world title in Granada, Spain in 2022 before clinching his second European crown last year in Sheffield.
“It can be an unpredictable sport but I think it would be the ultimate achievement if I win all three (titles) and be number one,” he said.
“It’s the best four things you can win in the game so it would be so cool to achieve that in my career.
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“I’ve never done it and I’m 36 so probably my best chance is now.
Great Britain’s Will Bayley won gold at Rio 2016 (Adam Davy/PA)
“It’s going to take everything but I feel like I’m in a good spot. I’m capable of winning it and it would be special, it would be my Everest.”
Bayley’s ill-fated spell on Strictly in 2019 has returned to the headlines following concerns raised by Amanda Abbington, Zara McDermott and Laura Whitmore about the treatment of contestants.
While he would like greater recognition for his exploits with a table tennis bat, the father of two is content being more well-known for appearing on the celebrity dance contest.
“It doesn’t really matter if people don’t know me as a table tennis player and know me for Strictly – it’s nice to be known in any way,” said Bayley, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament while practising for the show.
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“I’m getting old and I’m not worried about getting the respect I deserve any more in sport because I don’t think I’m ever going to get that so I can’t just keep chasing something that’s never going to happen.
“The people I care about know how hard I work and how good I am as a sportsman – that’s all that really matters.”
Bayley, who lives in Brighton, will be backed by around 120 travelling supporters in the French capital, with daughters Bella, six, and Grace, three, among his cheerleaders.
“They will be loud and they will be shouting for me, for sure,” he said.
“I try and teach them a bit of table tennis but they don’t listen to anything I’ve got to say!
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“It probably sounds a bit selfish but I want them to watch me and be there to see me win things, give them that memory that will last forever.
“When I’m dead and buried, they will be like, ‘he once won a medal and I was there and it was an amazing day’. That motivates me a lot because that’s what life is all about really.”
