David Powell

Fast Facts

Sport: Table Tennis
Event: Singles
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Coach: Mark Smythe
Year Born: 1991
State Born: VIC

About David

After missing selection for the London 2012 Olympics, high school teacher David Powell adopted the lessons of persistence and resilience he was teaching his students and channeled it into his own life, making his Olympic debut at Rio 2016.

Table tennis ran in the family with Powell's parents playing socially. Conveniently, the family had a table at their home which the Melbourne-based youngster took to straight away.

From the time he was eight-years-old, Powell was coached by dual-Olympian Mark Smythe, who now over 20-years later remains in that key role. Along with his parents, Powell considers Smyth as his greatest influence.

He began entering competitions as a teenager and became a regular finalist at Australian championships, also winning the under-15 doubles and singles Oceania titles and representing the region at the World Cadet Challenge in 2006.

The honours and achievements continued to flow, with Powell competing at the Commonwealth Youth (U18) Games and World Juniors in 2008.

Over the next few years, he competed at the Commonwealth Championships, World Championships, World University Games and World Team Cup before he made his Commonwealth Games debut at Glasgow 2014.

Powell placed 9th in both the Men's and Mixed Doubles, 17th in the Singles and 5th in the Team event and made his Olympic debut two years later at Rio 2016.

In Rio, the then 25-year-old went down in the opening round of the singles to Paraguay’s Marcelo Aguirre before lining up alongside Chris Yan and Heming Hu in the team event. The trio faced Hong Kong in the best of five match series, going down 3-0 with Powell losing his singles match in straight sets.

He then went on to compete at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games where he finished 5th in the Men's Team and 17th in the Men's Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

Powell made his second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokyo 2020 games, once again competing in both the singles and team events. 

David would progress from the first round of the men's singles tournament after his Czech opponent tested positive for Covid-19. This would set up a second-round tie against a Slovakian player Wang Yang, who defeated Powell in straight sets. 

David would once again pair up alongside Chris Yan and Heming Hu in the team event for the games. Where they would be defeated in the first round of the tournament by the hosts, team Japan.