Injured: 5 April 1992 at the age of 17 while playing outside centre for Dispatch High School in his Matric year. Riaan had to have his leg amputated at the knee following a severe knee injury that occurred on the field. He currently lives in Port Elizabeth with his family, he has his own online business in Google marketing as an advisor. He earned himself a title in the South African Para Table Tennis where he won a gold medal in 2024 in Cape Town at the National Para Table Tennis Championship’s TT8 division (the classification for mobility in the sport).
He joined Topspin, a local table tennis club, barely two years ago after starting to practice in his garage since 2014. Riaan openly talks about his health struggle that forced him into exercising during that time. “I was very unhealthy, overweight, and my back started acting up. I could barely move.”
“Today, I have a life that I could never have dreamed of touching. I wanted to become a police officer, but today, I’m an entrepreneur working all over the world as a Google marketing advisor. Not everything that has happened is bad. There is always hope for a change; it’s never too late.”