The 2022 Commonwealth Games are just around the corner and with several Victorian stars in Australia’s 14 player line-up heading to Birmingham, there’s going to be plenty to cheer about when the Aussie team hit the tables.

You wouldn’t think a seven-time Paralympian, Paralympic bronze and silver medallist, wheelchair tennis Grand Slam winner and former world number 1 like Danni Di Toro would have much left on her list of things to achieve. Especially after competing at some of the highest levels in both wheelchair tennis and table tennis for so long. Well soon she is set to make her Commonwealth Games debut, adding yet another achievement to her immensely impressive career.

By 2016 Danni had achieved nearly all there was to achieve in wheelchair tennis following her stellar career that spanned more than a quarter of a century after making her international debut in 1989. She then turned her attention to Para-table tennis. She was selected to the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team, and as co-captain of the team alongside wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley, she led Australia to a top five result at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

In 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Games, she was once again co-captain of the Paralympic side and helped guide the Australian Paralympic table tennis team to some of their best results of all time.

Danni’s inspirational journey shows just how far you can go no matter what you face in life. In 1988 she became a paraplegic at 13 years old after an accident at her school swimming carnival where a wall collapsed on her. A meeting with Australian Rollers wheelchair basketball gold medallist Sandy Blythe during rehab eventually led her back to sport.  Remarkably, in the same year she began playing wheelchair tennis after starting the sport when she was nine. It didn’t take her long to start competing with the best, making her international debut the following year.

She won her first Australian Open title in 1991 and would go on to win nine more, Danni reached the number 1 ranking in 1998, and from 1996 to 2012 she represented the green and gold at five consecutive Paralympic Games, winning silver in Sydney and bronze in Athens.

Danni did retire in 2005 but made a comeback in 2007 and in 2009 made her first finals appearance after retirement, she went on to make six straight finals including her 2010 French Open victory.

Following her decision to take on a new challenge and a new sport in 2015, Di Toro dominated in the C3-5 competition at the International Table Tennis Federation Oceania Para-Table Tennis Championships. This was her first international para-table tennis competition after her move from wheelchair tennis.

She was selected for the table tennis team heading to the Rio Paralympics in 2016 and was appointed team captain alongside Kurt Fearnley. In 2019, she was again named co-captain of the Australian Team at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics this time with Ryley Blatt and was also announced as one of the flagbearers for the Australian team during the opening ceremony. In 2022, she was awarded Paralympics Australia President’s Award.

After watching the Commonwealth Games Danni is extremely keen to be heading to Birmingham as part of an Australian team once again.

"I have loved watching the Commonwealth Games from afar during my sporting career," Di Toro said.

"It's amazing that I now have the opportunity to be on the Australian team in Birmingham.

"It's awesome to have both the Para and able-bodied team members unified in the one Australian team and being in the same villages and sharing stories and experiences with one another at the Games."

We are all certainly excited to watch Danni perform on the international stage yet again and are positive she will do the entire Australian table tennis community proud!

The 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games start on Thursday July 28. For information about the table tennis events including the schedule CLICK HERE.