Dylan Alcott
Lua error in Module:Infobox at line 314: malformed pattern (missing ']').
Dylan Martin Alcott, OAM[1] is an Australian wheelchair basketballer, wheelchair tennis player and motivational speaker. Alcott was a member of the Australian "Rollers" wheelchair basketball team and a crucial component in the Rollers gold medal win at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. At the age of 17 he became the youngest ever gold medal winner for wheelchair basketball, and was the youngest to compete in the Wheelchair Basketball competition. [2] In 2014, he returned to wheelchair tennis with the aiming of participating at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. [2] In winning his second Australian Open in January 2016, he has won three grand slam singles titles.[3]
Contents
Early life
Alcott was born in Melbourne to parents Martin and Resie. He has an older brother Zack. [2] He was born with a tumor wrapped around his spinal cord which was operated on during the first few weeks of his life.[4] The tumor was successfully cut out, however it left Alcott a paraplegic, leaving him wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life.
Alcott attended Brighton Grammar School from grade 6, and quickly developed a love for sport, and competed for Victoria in swimming, and Australia for wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball. Alcott graduated Brighton Grammar school in 2008 as a prefect, and is now a member of their school Hall of Fame.[4]
Alcott's first sport of choice was wheelchair tennis, where he represented Australia on numerous occasions, reaching a career high ranking of 100 in the world (4th in the world under-18s at the age of 16).
Basketball
Alcott played his first game of wheelchair basketball at 14 years and 6 months.[2] He was encouraged to play basketball due to his 6’4” arms and big hands. [2] Alcott made his debut for the rollers in the VISA paralympic world cup, where they won a medal. He continued to hold his spot and was a member of the Rollers who travelled to the Beijing warm up tournament in January 2008. He has made his name in basketball through his impressive performances in the national league competition, competing for the Dandenong Rangers and being selected in the all star team for 2008. He has achieved success through junior competition as well; being named the Most Valuable Player at the Junior National Basketball Championships.[citation needed]
He was part of the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team [5] at the 2008 Summer Paralympics,[6] for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia.[1] In his first Paralympics Dylan was quoted; "To be 17 and win gold... well it just doesn't get any better than that".[7]
In 2009, Alcott accepted a scholarship at the University or Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, where he went on to win the College Championship division with the University of Illinois wheelchair basketball team. After one year of study, he decided to move back to Melbourne to train for the 2012 London Paralympic Games.
In 2010, Alcott was a part of the Rollers success at the 2010 World Championships in Birmingham, England. It was the first world championship the Australian wheelchair basketball team had ever won, and Alcott was named in the World All Star 5 for the tournament.
At the 2012 Summer Paralympics he was part of the Australian men's wheelchair team that won silver.[8]
Tennis
In 2014, Alcott returned to wheelchair tennis, his first real love.[9] At the age of 16, he was ranked inside the top five juniors in the world.[9] In July 2014, he defeated beat world number three Andy Lapthorne 7-5 6-1 in the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship final in Nottingham to win his first Super Series crown.[10] Early in the year, he won the New Zealand Open in just his second tournament appearance.[10] In January 2015, he won the quad wheelchair Australian Open title by defeating David Wagner in straight sets.[11] It was his maiden grand slam title.[11] At the conclusion on 2015, he was ranked number 1 after winning eight titles including two grand slam singles titles.[3]
Grand Slam Singles Quad Wheelchair Results
| Outcome | Year | Championship | Surface | Opponents | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 2015 | Australian Open | Hard |  David Wagner |
6-2, 6-3 |
| Winner | 2015 | US Open | Hard | David Wagner |
6-1 4-6 7-5 |
| Winner | 2016 | Australian Open | Hard | David Wagner |
6-2, 6-2 |
Personal life
Alcott is currently studying at the University of Melbourne where he is undertaking a Commerce degree. He currently works as a motivational speaker, inspiring the youth of today to change the way that they perceive people with disabilities. Alcott aspires to work in mainstream media as a television presenter, as he believes this will speak volumes for people with disabilities, giving them added exposure in which they deserve.
In his spare time, Alcott loves music festivals, and has become world famous for his 'wheelchair crowdsurfing'.[13]
Alcott advice to young people with a disability is: " The biggest thing is that for every one thing you can’t do, there are 10,000 others you can. For every one idiot to give you a hard time, there are 10,000 others worth your time." [2]
Recognition
- 2015 - Tennis Australia Newcombe Medal nominee[14]
- 2015 - Tennis Australia Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability[15]
- 2015 - Victorian Institute of Sport Award of Excellence [16]
- 2016 - Governor's Award for Victorian Sportsperson of the Year [17]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.
<references />, or <references group="..." />External links
- Tennis Australia Athlete Profile
- International Tennis Federation Profile and Results
- Australian Paralympic Committee profile
- Dylan Alcott Twitter
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/confidential/paralympian-dylan-alcott-wows-crowd-at-meredith-music-festival/story-fnn7ma1h-1227155912913
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Pages with reference errors
- Use dmy dates from May 2015
- Use Australian English from May 2015
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012
- Australian wheelchair basketball players
- Australian male tennis players
- Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Australia
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
- Paralympic gold medalists for Australia
- Paralympic silver medalists for Australia
- Wheelchair category Paralympic competitors
- Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
- 1991 births
- Living people
- People educated at Brighton Grammar School
- Illinois Fighting Illini Paralympic athletes
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
- Governor's Award for Victorian Sportsperson of the Year
