Paralympic champion tennis player Dylan Alcott named Australian of the Year
Alcott, who won the quad singles wheelchair events at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, has said the 2022 Australian Open will be the final event of his career.
Wheelchair Tennis
Paralympic champion Dylan Alcott has been given his country's highest honour.
Alcott, a three-time gold medallist in the quad wheelchair tennis division, was named the Australian of the Year by the National Australia Day Council, it was announced Tuesday (25 January).
Alcott, who has 15 Grand Slam singles titles and eight doubles crowns, has said the 2022 Australian Open - which concludes this week - will be the final tournament of his career. He has advanced to the men's singles final in Melbourne, which will be his last match.
The 31-year-old began his athletic career as a wheelchair basketball player for Australia. He helped the team to gold at Beijing 2008 and silver at London 2012, bringing his overall Paralympic medal haul to six.
After switching to tennis, he won gold in both the quad singles and doubles at Rio 2016, then the gold in singles and silver in doubles at Tokyo 2020 in 2021. Both those doubles medals were earned with teammate Heath Davidson.
“Winning Grand Slams and gold medals isn’t my purpose ... my purpose is changing perceptions so people with disability and people like me can get out there and live the lives they should be able to live,” Alcott said in a ceremony speech for which he had flown from the AO to Canberra for.
“We have to have greater representation of people with disability absolutely everywhere."
Alcott was featured in the Olympic Channel original series What Moves Me in 2020. See the episode below.