Michael Dempsey (table tennis)

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.[3] The U.S. Wheelchair Champion John Gray took 13-year-old Dempsey to the National Wheelchair Games in 1969. He competed as an unseeded newcomer however he successfully won his first gold medal after beating Serge Jelenevsky for the gold medal; this was one of Dempsey's first of thirty golds that he won in his career.

In the early 1970s, Dempsey kept improving on his table tennis skills by competing against able-bodied players in his training club in his hometown by taking part in local competitions. In July 1971, Dempsey took part in his first international competition: he won a gold medal in Kingston. He went on to win five more Pan-Am Singles Championships titles. Dempsey's practiced his table tennis skills with a Stiga robot at home and he defeated his mentor Gray to win a national championship in Ohio and also won another title along with Gray in the doubles to win against Jelenevsky and Ty Kaus.

In 1973, Dempsey was ranked no.1 among the young adult players of Ohio and ranked no. 6 in the male Ohio table tennis players category. He went to the World Championships in Stoke Mandeville, England where Michael won 1st of his seven World's singles titles, this was also where he had beaten Sam Hagai for the first time after his defeat in the 1972 Summer Paralympics Games in Heidelberg, he also won the doubles title with Gray.

Michael graduated in 1974 in Gahanna Lincoln High School, he awarded a Varsity sport jacket for "his achievements in table tennis and basketball" and was inducted into the National Honor Society for "his scholarship, character, leadership and service". In March 1974, Michael went to Mount Airy Lodge in Pennsylvania to visit a training center so that he could be coached to compete against top 15 or above able-bodied juniors in the United States and he was hoping to join the US junior team that will play against Germany in a tournament. From 1975 to 1977, Dempsey and his teammate Fletcher went on to win a doubles title together in 1975. After 1977, Dempsey won six singles consecutively from 1977 to 1982 in not just his class but in open categories.

In the early 1980s, Dempsey didn't win any singles or doubles titles in both Worlds' and Pan-Am Championships however he did win two golds and a bronze medal in 1985 in Vienna.

Michael Dempsey won his first medals in the World Para Table Tennis Championships in Assen, Netherlands: he won a silver medal in the singles by Thomas Kreidel and won a bronze medal in the teams' event by France who went on to win the title.

During the 1990s, Dempsey won the most medals of his career in one event: three golds in the Para PanAmerican Games in Mexico. He won these medals in the singles, open singles and teams event along with Andre Scott.