Dylan Alcott

Dylan Alcott was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to parents Martin and Resie. He has an older brother Zack.[3] He was born with a tumor wrapped around his spinal cord which was operated on during the first few weeks of his life.[7] The tumor was successfully cut out; however, it left Alcott a paraplegic, requiring him to use a wheelchair.

Alcott attended Brighton Grammar School from grade 6, and competed for Victoria in swimming, and Australia for wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball. Alcott graduated Brighton Grammar school in 2008.[7]

Alcott's first sport of choice was wheelchair tennis, where he represented Australia on numerous occasions, reaching a ranking of 100 in the world by age 16 (4th in the world for under-18s).

Alcott in a game versus Great Britain

Alcott played his first game of wheelchair basketball aged 14.[3] Alcott made his debut for the Rollers at the World Championship, where they won a bronze medal. Alcott continued to hold his spot and was a member of the Rollers who travelled to the Beijing Olympic warm-up tournament in January 2008. Alcott made his name in basketball through his 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.

Alcott was part of the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics,[8][9] for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia.[10] In his first Paralympics Dylan was quoted; "To be 17 and win gold... well it just doesn't get any better than that".[11]

In 2009, Alcott accepted a scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 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, Alcott was part of the Australian men's wheelchair team that won silver.[12]

Alcott during the 2014 Swiss Open in Geneva

In 2014, Alcott returned to wheelchair tennis.[13] At the age of 16, he was ranked inside the top five juniors in the world.[13] In July 2014, he defeated 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.[14] Early in the year, he won the New Zealand Open in just his second tournament appearance.[14] In January 2015, he won the quad wheelchair Australian Open title by defeating David Wagner in straight sets.[15] It was his maiden grand slam title.[15] At the conclusion on 2015, he was ranked number 1 after winning eight titles including two grand slam singles titles.[4] In 2018, Alcott won his first Wheelchair Tennis Masters title in the Quads singles event.[16]

Quad singles: 10 (9 titles, 1 runner-up)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Win	2015	Australian Open	Hard	David Wagner	6–2, 6–3
Win	2015	US Open	Hard	David Wagner	6–1, 4–6, 7–5
Win	2016	Australian Open (2)	Hard	David Wagner	6–2, 6–2
Win	2017	Australian Open (3)	Hard	Andy Lapthorne	6–2, 6–2
Win	2018	Australian Open (4)	Hard	David Wagner	7–6, 6–1
Win	2018	US Open (2)	Hard	David Wagner	7–5, 6–2
Win	2019	Australian Open (5)	Hard	David Wagner	6–4, 7–6(7–2)
Win	2019	French Open	Clay	David Wagner	6–2, 4–6, 6–2
Win	2019	Wimbledon	Grass	Andy Lapthorne	6–0, 6–2
Loss	2019	US Open	Hard	Andy Lapthorne	1–6, 0–6
Win	2020	Australian Open (6)	Hard	Andy Lapthorne	6–0, 6–4

Source:[1]

Quad doubles: 13 (6 titles, 7 runner-ups)

Result	Year	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	2014	Australian Open	Hard	Lucas Sithole	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	4–6, 4–6
Loss	2015	Australian Open	Hard	Lucas Sithole	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	0–6, 6–3, 2–6
Loss	2015	US Open	Hard	Gauri Sharma	Nicholas Taylor David Wagner	6–4, 2–6, [7–10]
Loss	2016	Australian Open	Hard	Andy Lapthorne	Lucas Sithole David Wagner	1–6, 3–6
Loss	2017	Australian Open	Hard	Heath Davidson	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	3–6, 3–6
Loss	2017	US Open	Hard	Bryan Barten	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	5–7, 2–6
Win	2018	Australian Open	Hard	Heath Davidson	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	6–0, 6–7(5–7), [10–6]
Loss	2018	US Open	Hard	Bryan Barten	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	6–3, 0–6, [4–10]
Win	2019	Australian Open (2)	Hard	Heath Davidson	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	6–3, 6–7(6–8), [12–10]
Win	2019	French Open	Clay	David Wagner	Ymanitu Silva Koji Sugeno	6–3, 6–3
Win	2019	Wimbledon	Grass	Andy Lapthorne	Koji Sugeno David Wagner	6–2, 7–6(7–4)
Win	2019	US Open	Hard	Andy Lapthorne	Bryan Barten David Wagner	6–7(5–7), 6–1, [10–6]
Win	2020	Australian Open (3)	Hard	Heath Davidson	Andy Lapthorne David Wagner	6–4, 6–3

Source:[1]

Alcott finished studying at the University of Melbourne and now has a Commerce degree. He currently works as a motivational speaker and as a radio host on Triple J.[17]

In his spare time, Alcott attends music festivals, and has become known for his 'wheelchair crowdsurfing'.[18] In 2018, he launched Ability Fest, a universally accessible music festival, featuring pathways for wheelchairs, quiet areas for people with sensory disabilities, and Auslan (Australian Sign Language) interpreters.[19]

He was a panel member on the AFL Footy Show until the show was cancelled in 2019

Alcott's 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."[3]

In 2017, Alcott established the Dylan Alcott Foundation "with the core purpose of helping young Australians with disabilities gain self-esteem and respect through sport and study".[20] In September 2017, Alcott was appointed Australian Patron for International Day of People with Disability.[21]

The book Able: gold medals, grand slams and smashing glass ceilings, written with Grantlee Kieza, was published by ABC Books in 2018.[22]

• 2009 – Medal of the Order of Australia[10]
• 2015 – Tennis Australia Newcombe Medal nominee[23]
• 2015 – Tennis Australia Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability[24]
• 2015 – Victorian Institute of Sport Award of Excellence[25]
• 2016 – Governor's Award for Victorian Sportsperson of the Year[26]
• 2016 – Finalist for 'The Don Award' Sport Australia Hall of Fame awards[27]
• 2016 – Australian Paralympian of the Year and Australian Male Paralympian of the Year[6][28]
• 2016 – Tennis Australia Awards – Newcombe Medal and shared the Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability with doubles partner Heath Davidson[29]
• 2016 – Victorian Institute of Sport Elite Athlete with a Disability Award[30]
• 2018 – International Tennis Federation Quad Wheelchair World Champion[31]
• 2019 – Logie Awards – Graham Kennedy Award for Most Popular New Talent[32]
• 2019 – Victorian Institute of Sport Elite Athlete with a Disability Award [33]
• 2019 – Tennis Australia Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability [34]

• Dylan Alcott at Tennis Australia
• Australian Paralympic Committee profile
• Dylan Alcott on Twitter
• Dylan Alcott Full Biography at ICMI.com.au