Dylan Alcott
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Dylan Alcott (born December 4, 1990, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) successfully competed in several Paralympic Games in the early 21st century in both basketball and tennis. The Paralympics, which are comparable to the Olympic Games, are a major international sports competition for athletes with disabilities. Alcott won numerous professional wheelchair tennis tournaments, including the Australian Open seven times. In 2021 he became the first male athlete to earn the Golden Grand Slam in singles tennis. He received that honor by winning the four major Grand Slam tennis tournaments (the Australian Open, Wimbledon, the French Open, and the U.S. Open) as well as a Paralympic gold medal in tennis in the same year.
Basketball career
Alcott was born with a tumor surrounding his spinal cord, and doctors performed surgery to remove it when Alcott was just a few weeks old. Although the tumor was removed, the lower half of his body was paralyzed, and he went on to use a wheelchair. As he grew up he became interested in sports and began competing in swimming, wheelchair basketball, and wheelchair tennis.
Alcott began playing competitive basketball in the early 21st century. He played the position of guard with the Victoria Dandenong Rangers in the National Wheelchair Basketball League. He was named Victoria’s Junior Athlete of the Year for wheelchair sports in 2004–06 and 2008. At the Junior National Basketball Championships in 2007 he was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP). He won a spot on the all-star team in 2008. Meanwhile, in 2006 Alcott became a member of the Rollers, the Australian men’s national wheelchair basketball team. He made his Summer Paralympics debut in Beijing in 2008, helping the team win a gold medal. At age 17 Alcott was the youngest Paralympics wheelchair basketball competitor at the time.
In 2009 Alcott went to the United States to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he played on the school’s wheelchair basketball team. The team won the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Championship in 2010. Shortly afterward, Alcott returned to Australia, earning a degree in commerce at the University of Melbourne. Meanwhile, he helped the Rollers win the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation World Championships held in Birmingham, England. It was the first time at the tournament that the team had earned the gold medal. Alcott was named an All Star Five for the tournament. He then participated in the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. The team won the silver medal, losing to Canada in the championship game.
Switch to tennis
In 2014 Alcott began to concentrate fully on playing tennis. He had previously played when he was a teenager, at the time becoming internationally ranked. He competed in the quad wheelchair category, which encompasses athletes in wheelchairs who have additional impairments in at least one arm. Alcott quickly began winning on the tennis court, and by the end of 2015 he was ranked number one in the world. That year he won the Australian Open and the U.S. Open for quad singles wheelchair players. He would go on to win the Australian Open six more consecutive times, from 2016 to 2021. Alcott also won the U.S. Open again in 2018 and 2021. His other major tournament wins were the French Open in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and Wimbledon in 2019 and 2021.
In addition to quad singles, Alcott played quad doubles. He partnered with Australian player Heath Davidson to earn four wins at the Australian Open (2018–21). In 2019 Alcott won the first French Open quad doubles with U.S. player David Wagner. For the first Wimbledon quad doubles that same year, Alcott won with British player Andy Lapthorne. The two teamed up again and won both the 2019 and 2020 quad doubles at the U.S. Open.
While Alcott was competing in the major professional tournaments, he also participated in the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He won a gold medal in the quad singles after defeating Lapthorne in the final match. Alcott also won a gold medal in the quad doubles. In the championship game he and partner Davidson defeated the U.S. team of Wagner and Nick Taylor. Alcott participated in the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games—which were actually played in 2021 after being postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic—in Tokyo. He won another gold medal in the quad singles, and he earned a silver medal alongside partner Davidson in the quad doubles. Over his career, he won four gold medals and two silver medals in the Paralympics.
In total Alcott won 15 Grand Slam singles events and 8 Grand Slam doubles titles. He retired from tennis in January 2022, after he competed in that year’s Australian Open.
Personal life and honors
As a child Alcott often felt marginalized or overlooked because of his disability. As an adult he worked to help prevent others from feeling the same way. In 2016 he cofounded Get Skilled Access, an organization that promotes inclusion for people with disabilities. The next year he established the Dylan Alcott Foundation, which offers grants to help children and young adults with disabilities reach their full potential through sports and educational pursuits. In 2018 Alcott founded Ability Fest, a musical festival that offers accommodations for people with disabilities, including wheelchair ramps and sign language interpreters.
In addition to sports and philanthropy, Alcott spent time as a motivational speaker and radio broadcaster. He wrote the biography Able (2018) with Grantlee Kieza.
The Australian government and sports organizations honored Alcott over the course of his career. In 2016 he became the first athlete with a disability to be awarded the Newcombe Medal, the highest award given to individuals in Australian tennis. He won the award a second time in 2021. In 2009 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia, and in 2022 he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia. Also in 2022 Alcott was honored as Australian of the Year in recognition of his contributions to sports and his humanitarian activities.