As the ITF marks 100 days to go to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, wheelchair tennis world No. 1s Shingo Kunieda, Diede De Groot and Dylan Alcott share their thoughts as the Games move ever closer.  

Asking reigning quad singles and doubles Paralympic champion Dylan Alcott what makes the Games so special is like lighting a firework; the initial answer fizzes from him before bursting in every direction, each spark as illuminating as the others.

“I love the Paralympics – I call the Olympics the warm-up event for the big show, the 30-year-old said. “For two weeks of the year, people with disabilities around the world, it’s the main show. It means everything to me.”

The world No. 1 claimed both gold medals at Rio 2016, emulating compatriot David Hall’s 2000 triumph with victory in the singles before partnering Heath Davidson to doubles glory. But the Melbourne native’s Paralympic journey began 13 years earlier, where he claimed the first of his four Paralympic medals.

Alcott made his Paralympic debut in Beijing in 2008 – not in tennis, but in wheelchair basketball. The youngest player in the competition, he won gold with the Australian ‘Rollers’ at the age of 17. Four years later, the Rollers won silver at London 2012; soon after, Alcott’s focus switched back from the basketball court to the tennis court.

“I’ve been lucky enough to win three gold medals across different Paralympic Games and different sports,” said Alcott. “I can’t compare them – the basketball gold I won in Beijing I got to share with my teammates, which was special, but them the golds in Rio for tennis I got to share with my family.”

The Paralympics changed Alcott’s life in ways he hadn’t seen coming. There have been the trappings of success: he was still a teenager when he received the Medal of the Order of Australia for his part in the nation’s 2008 wheelchair basketball triumph, while in tandem with his triumphs on court in recent years he has established himself as a radio host and motivational speaker who turns his celebrity to charitable causes, including his own foundation.

But there was also a step-change in his perception of disability in society, renewed each time he returns from the Paralympic villages of Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro.

“I remember going home after Beijing, looking around the streets and I didn’t see anybody with a disability – or maybe they were there and they didn’t want to disclose their disability, they may have an invisible disability. And that’s not fair: they don’t feel like they can be themselves because society places expectations and unconscious bias on them. But in the village, we’re all just smiling and competing, and it’s amazing. I want that village to be a snapshot of what it should be like in our communities.”

Alcott’s favourite Paralympic memory offers one such snapshot.

“There are so many disabilities you’ve never seen before,” he said. “I was in the food hall and I saw a guy, he was carrying his buffet food tray with his mouth. He had no arms from the shoulders down, nothing. He then ate his rice using chopsticks with his feet. He also swims the 100m backstroke in one minute, 15 seconds.

“Being a Paralympian didn’t change the way I thought about myself. I’m always just Dylan – the accolades don’t do anything to me, to be honest. But you get goosebumps going into that village – there’s the adrenaline of wanting to compete, but also seeing so many people with disabilities in a place where they feel comfortable with their disability. They are normal in there.”

When Alcott triumphed in Rio, he was a three-time Grand Slam singles champion. Five years on, he has added a further nine major singles titles – aided in part by the 2019 introduction of quad events at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon, where he remains undefeated.

The Aussie will head to Tokyo very much as the man to beat, but after US Open final defeats by Andy Lapthorne and Sam Schroder respectively over the past two seasons, and with the evergreen David Wagner chasing a singles gold to join his doubles victories in 2004, 2008 and 2012, Alcott knows defending his titles will be no easy task.

For now, though, his thoughts are with those in the host city and beyond still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and doing their utmost to deliver a Paralympic Games to compare with those of yesteryear in such challenging times.

“It’s going to be super-interesting to get to Tokyo,” he said. “First and foremost, I want to send my love to everyone around the world, I hope everyone’s doing okay. It’s been a tough for so many people in so many parts of the world.

“I’m just controlling what I can control, which is nothing that’s going on in Tokyo. I’m not thinking about it – I’m just going to turn up, do my best, be safe.

“I’m lucky that I’ve been to other Games and I fully appreciate that it’s going to be different, but fully appreciative that Tokyo’s trying to have it.”