Sue Bailey MBE (Gilroy)
Barnsley Sue Bailey MBE (Gilroy)
BarnsleyBiography
Sue initially started playing table-tennis when she was 12 years old after watching her parents who competed in the local Barnsley and Sheffield leagues. Having also played cricket and netball, at the age of 20 she started playing table tennis in a wheelchair, joining the GB squad in 1996.
She competed in her first European Championships in 1998 and was European champion in 2005, having won silver in 2003 when seven and a half months pregnant.
She took gold in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002 and again in Melbourne in 2006 and was world bronze medallist in 2006 and world silver medallist in 2014. Sue has represented GB in six Paralympic Games and in Rio 2016 she came heartbreakingly close to winning her first Paralympic medal, losing a very close match for the bronze medal 3-2 having led 2-0.
She secured qualification for Tokyo by winning the women’s class 4 singles at the World Qualification Tournament in Slovenia and achieved her dream of a Paralympic medal in Tokyo, taking bronze in the women’s class 4-5 team event with Megan Shackleton.
Sue reverted to her maiden name of Bailey in 2021 and combines her table tennis career with her work as a full-time Primary School Teacher at Shawlands Primary School in Barnsley.
Major appearances and career highlights
| Paralympic Games | Tokyo | 2021 | Women’s Class 4-5 Team bronze |
| European Championships | Sweden | 2019 | Women’s Class 4-5 Team bronze |
| European Championships | Slovenia | 2017 | Women’s Class 4-5 Singles bronze |
| World Team Championships | Slovakia | 2017 | Women’s Class 4-5 bronze |
| Paralympic Games | Rio | 2016 | Women’s Class 4 Singles SF |
| European Championships | Denmark | 2015 | Women’s Class 4-5 Team bronze |
| World Championships | Beijing | 2014 | Women’s Class 4 Singles silver |
| European Championships | Italy | 2013 | Women’s Class 4 Singles bronze |
| European Championships | Italy | 2009 | Women’s Class 4 Singles silver |
| World Championships | Switzerland | 2006 | Women’s Class 4 Singles bronze |
| Commonwealth Games | Melbourne | 2006 | Women’s Class 1-5 Singles gold |
| European Championships | Italy | 2005 | Women’s Class 4 Team bronze; Women’s Class 4 Singles gold |
| European Championships | Croatia | 2003 | Women’s Class 4 Singles silver |
| Commonwealth Games | Manchester | 2002 | Women’s Class 2-5 Singles gold |
| European Championships | Germany | 2001 | Women’s Class 4 Team bronze |