The king himself, Dylan Alcott, has won gold medal at the Paralympics quad singles final (YES!). He also announced that this would be his last Paralympics games ever (NO!!).
The champ beat The Netherlands’ Sam Schroder at the Tokyo finals on Saturday (7-6 (7-2) 6-1) and even chanted Lleyton Hewitt‘s classic line “C’mon”.
Speaking to Channel 7 post-match, Alcott fought through tears to announce that this would be his last ever Paralympics.
“I’m not coming back to the Paralympics ever again,’ he said.
“I just, I love the Paralympic games so much, it means so much to me.
“When I was 17 I got to go with the Rollers and we won gold and it was life changing — but Paralympic sport in general saved my life, it did.
“It was the best thing that ever happened to me, and, I owe it so much.”
He even offered to have a beer with everyone when he’s back, so we better hold him to that when we’re out of lockdown.
“I am gonna come home and drink 10,000 beers with everyone!”
Alcott is the current world tennis champion, after winning the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year. He will now compete for the US Open title, potentially making it five wins out of five.
It’s Alcott’s second quad singles win, taking out the gold at the Rio games in 2016. Even more amazingly, the tennis legend also used to be a basketball champ, winning gold with the Australian wheelchair basketball team (the Rollers) at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Not only is he a gun at sport, but he also won a Silver Logie for Most Popular New Talent on ABC’a The Set. King shit.
Dylan Alcott has been such an amazing inspiration to so many Aussies over the years, and it’s great to see the overall excitement the country has had for the Paralympics this year.
“I’m just so thankful and grateful that it came into my life and i can perform on the big stage and change perceptions along the way of what people think of us, people with disabilities,” Alcott told Channel 7 today.
“Not just as athletes, hopefully this is changing perceptions beyond that.
“Not every person with a disability can be a Paralympian. But they can be a doctor, a lawyer, a mum, a dad, a teacher, an educator, politician whatever it is. But they don’t often get the opportunities that we get here to play sport.
“It means that much to me. It’s huge. And to get it done today is bloody awesome.”
