Simon Gerada
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Table tennis | ||
Representing  Malta
| ||
| Games of the Small States of Europe | ||
.svg.png){kind=icon} | 2011 Liechtenstein | Doubles |
.svg.png){kind=icon} | 2013 Luxembourg | Team |
Simon Gerada is a right-handed Australian/Maltese Table Tennis Player. His father, Joe Gerada was born in Malta and emigrated to Australia in the 1980s. Simon Gerada was born and brought up in Melbourne, Australia and began playing at the age of 9 after he witnessed his father win a shopping centre tournament. He represented Victoria in national junior tournaments and won the Michael Szabados award.
Commonwealth Games and Olympics controversy
Gerada represented Australia in the Sydney Olympics as a 19-year-old.
In January 2001, Gerada returned to Australia. On the same day, he got a phone call asking him to go to a training session. The Australian Team was training for the World Championships and it was in Gerada's Table Tennis Australia contract that he must attend this session. However, after 2 hours he walked out citing that he "could not cope". This compromised his Commonwealth Games position and despite calls from the Victorian Institute of Sport that he should be allowed to represent Australia, the authorities did not back down. Gerada accepted the offer from his father to play for Malta instead.[1]
In Melbourne in 2006, he teamed up with his elder brother Wayne representing Malta in the Table tennis doubles.
In 2010, he returned to representing Australia in New Delhi, where, among the four categories he enlisted in, he teamed up with Justin Han in the men's doubles and pushed Sharath Kamal Achanta and Subhajit Saha of India before losing in full five games at the round of 16.