Manfred Emmel
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| Born | 8 October 1945 Seckbach, Frankfurt, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 6 October 2025 (aged 79) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Para table tennis | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Manfred Emmel (8 October 1945 – 6 October 2025) was a German para table tennis player who competed in international table tennis competitions. He was an eight-time Paralympic champion in swimming and table tennis. He was notably one of the most successful German para table tennis player in the 1970s and 1980s.[1]
In 1967, Emmel founded the Wheelchair Sports Club (German: Rollstuhl-Sport-Club, RSC) in Frankfurt with Kurt Nicklas who was a physiotherapist for a trauma clinic in Berlin and Alfred Daßbach. Emmel was the chairman for the RSC from 1994 to 2015. The RSC is a sports club for wheelchair users who compete in wheelchair basketball, archery, wheelchair curling, handcycling, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair dancing and table tennis.[2]
Personal life
In 1963, Emmel was paralysed from a swimming accident in Schultheis pond in Offenbach District when he dived into the pond head first into gravel.[3]
Emmel passed away days before his 80th birthday in 2025.[4]
References
- ^ "Manfred Emmel - IPC Profile". International Paralympic Committee. 4 January 2026.
- ^ "Getting wheelchair users excited about sports (in German)". Frankfurter Neue Presse. 11 April 2018.
- ^ "Sports Minister praises the commitment of RSC Frankfurt (in German)". Wetterauer Zeitung. 7 October 2017.
- ^ "DRS Mourns The Loss of Former Vice-Chairman (in German)". drs.org. 6 October 2025.