Ian
Kent

Ian Kent has competed at four Parapan American Games earning seven medals. He helped Canada to the silver in the team event and added a bronze in singles at the 2015 Games in Toronto.  At the 2011 Games, he won gold in singles and silver in doubles, and in 2007 it was silver in both the singles and team events.

In 2019 at Lima, he added a bronze in the men’s Class 8 singles.
A former able-bodied table tennis national team coach, Kent has been playing the sport virtually his entire life.

Since Toronto, he has competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and won the U.S. Open men’s singles title that same year overcoming a 0-2 deficit in games in the final. In 2019 at the Copa Christina Hoffman tournament in Cancun, Mexico he notched gold in the team event and silver in singles.

In 1999, at the age of 38, Kent was diagnosed with dystonia, a movement disorder in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. He was bed-ridden for nearly two years before the cause was diagnosed. He returned to table tennis in 2001 and in 2003, he entered the world of Paralympic table tennis.

As of October 2023, he is ranked 62nd in the world in singles and 41st in doubles while in the Americas rankings he is ninth in singles and fourth in doubles.
 

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

2007, 2011, 2015, 2019 Parapan American Games … 2008 Paralympic Games… 2018 Commonwealth Games… Won the able-bodied Atlantic Men’s Open Singles title in five different decades… As soccer coach at Dalhousie University from 1991 to 1998, he won the Atlantic University Championship five times and won a national title in 1995.

PERSONAL

Borin in London, moved to Canada with his parents as a child… Father of three boys, now adults… Holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with a major in mathematics and a minor in psychology from Saint Mary’s University… His mother is a former British track athlete… Para program manager for Table Tennis Canada…

NOTABLE INTERNATIONAL RESULTS

2019 Parapan American Games – Singles 3rd

2018 Commonwealth Games – Singles did not advance from preliminary round

2015 Parapan American Games – Team 2nd

2015 Parapan American Games – Singles 3rd

2011 Parapan American Games – Singles 1st

2011 Parapan American Games – Doubles 2nd

2008 Paralympic Games – Singles 12th

2007 Parapan American Games – Singles 2nd

2007 Parapan American Games – Team 2nd