Dylan Alcott AO was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2026 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to Paralympic Sport in Wheelchair Tennis.
Dylan Alcott was one of Australia’s most versatile and admired competitors, achieving extraordinary success in wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball.
Throughout his celebrated career on the two very different courts, his achievements served as an inspiration for Australians while his resilience, his determination and his advocacy provided a telling example for the next generation of athletes.
Having become a paraplegic during the first few weeks of his life after he underwent surgery to remove a tumour on his spine, he used his passion for sport as a driving force in his life.
He represented Victoria and Australia from an early age in various sports, including wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball, with his competitive edge and his elite hand-eye coordination proving important components of his athletic arsenal.
By the time he was 17, he was a member of the Australian Wheelchair Basketball team – the Rollers – as they secured the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Four years later, Alcott and the Rollers won the silver medal at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Following these two Paralympic campaigns in Wheelchair Basketball Alcott pivoted back to his first sporting love – wheelchair tennis – in 2014 and the switch became stunningly successful in a relatively short time as he contributed to the transformation of the sport.
Within a year, he had won his first major, the 2015 Australian Open quad singles, and later that year he took out the US Open on his way to becoming the No.1 player in the world.
Alcott would go on to win seven Australian Open quad singles titles, three US Opens, two Wimbledon titles and three French Opens, alongside multiple Grand Slam doubles Championships alongside his lifelong friend Heath Davidson.
He won the career Grand Slam in doubles in 2019. Two years later in a landmark 2021 season, he became the first male player in any form of tennis to win all four Grand Slam quad singles titles in a calendar year as well as Paralympic Gold in the same year, ‘The Golden Slam’.
In Paralympic Wheelchair tennis, Alcott achieved back-to-back success in the quad singles in the 2016 Rio Games and in the 2021 Tokyo Games, while winning a gold medal (2016) and a silver medal (2021) in the quad doubles with teammate Heath Davidson.
He retired from tennis after finishing runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open, but in a career defined by skill, leadership and never-say-die spirit, his lasting impact on wheelchair sport has enshrined his place in the pantheon of Australia’s tennis, basketball and Paralympic legends.
Alcott’s impact on the Australian sporting landscape, and indeed the wider community, was duly recognised when he was named as Australian of the Year in 2022.
Dylan Alcott has always focused on what he can do, instead of what he couldn’t.
In following that mantra with a single-minded determination and a compelling work ethic, he has written his place into Australian sporting history, and into the hearts and minds of the wider community.
Alcott was a game-changer on two very different courts.
In wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball, he dominated at the highest level and helped to transform those sports.
Off the court, he was just as impactful as an advocate for inclusion, as an inspiration not only to athletes with a disability but for all members of the community, and as a role model for the next generation of athletes.
As he once told News Corp: “Sport was my biggest lifeline. It gave me the freedom to travel the world and meet people and get fit, and, most importantly, to have a purpose.”
Having been born with a tumour wrapped around his spinal cord, he was operated on in the first few weeks of his life. The tumour was removed to help save his life, but the surgery damaged his spinal cord, which meant he became a paraplegic.
He spent his first few years in and out of hospital with numerous operations and health challenges. But his family ensured sport was a part of his upbringing, and from his earliest days, he had a “natural knack” for it.
“I used to sit at the tennis net in a chair or holding onto the net and hitting volleys with my Dad just drilling balls at me, even when I couldn’t move the chair,” he recalled.
He came to realise, even in his early years, that he had incredible hand-eye coordination.
“I don’t know if this is science or not, but if you lose something like the ability to move your limbs I think your other dexterity and senses improve dramatically,” he would tell Hamish McLachlan in an interview.
“I have great hands because I’ve had to use them so much. I’ve got good hearing as well, so I think my body has counterbalanced.”
That counterbalance led him to trying a range of sports, which brought about an equilibrium in his life after some challenging times in his formative years.
Wheelchair tennis was his first love, and he was exceptionally good at it, as he worked his way through the rankings.
“When I was 16, I was ranked inside the top five juniors in the world,” he would recall.
But having been told he would be well suited to wheelchair basketball, he switched sports.
Alcott played his first basketball game when he was 14, and within three years he was a member of the gold medal-winning Rollers, Australia’s wheelchair basketball team, at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
It fulfilled a prophecy he had made to his Dad when he was nine that he would one day represent his country at the Paralympics.
Ten years later, at 17, he had not only attended his first Paralympics, he had brought home a gold medal.
“To be 17 and win gold … well, it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said at the time.
But it would get better – and in a different sport.
Alcott and the Rollers went on to win the silver medal at the 2012 London Paralympics, having won the wheelchair basketball world championships two years earlier.
His potential was also being recognised beyond the basketball court. In 2011, he was selected as a Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentor Program recipient, and was mentored through the program by basketball great Andrew Gaze AM.
But a decision to pivot back to the sport that he loved the most as a teenager – wheelchair tennis – proved one of the most astute of his sporting life.
“I’d had enough of basketball,” he said.
“I had a hit of tennis and realised I was much better at it than I originally was. I got offered a wildcard into the Aussie Open and played right there.”
He made the change in 2014. Within a year he had won his first quad singles grand slam title in the 2015 Australian Open, adding his first US Open to his CV later that year, and before the end of the year he was the No.1 player in the world.
It was a swift but impressive rise.
By the end of his career, he had won seven quad singles titles at the Australian Open, three US Opens, three French Opens and two Wimbledons.
He also won eight quad doubles titles, including four at the Australian Open.
Having already been to two Paralympics as a wheelchair basketballer, his move to tennis took him to two more, and his medal tally swelled.
He won the gold medal in the quad singles at the 2016 Rio Games, and the gold medal in the quad doubles. Then five years later, in the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games, he added another quad singles gold medal while also securing a quad doubles silver medal. His Rio success saw him named both Australian Paralympian of the Year and Australian Male Paralympian of the Year in 2016. That same year, he made history as the first wheelchair tennis player to win the Newcombe Medal, the highest individual honour in Australian tennis.
Alcott won the quad doubles grand slam clean sweep in 2019, but saved his best for his final full season of competition when he became the first male in any form of tennis to win ‘The Golden Slam’ claiming a Grand Slam quad singles clean sweep, winning the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Open titles, as well as the Tokyo singles gold.
That remarkable season earned him a second Newcombe Medal, shared with Ash Barty, making him the first and only wheelchair tennis player to win the award, and to win it twice.
This helped to elevate Alcott’s profile to an even higher plane, as he received numerous honours on and off the court that he used to help inspire others and to extend his message of inclusivity far beyond the tennis world.
He chose to retire from the sport in 2022, making that year’s Australian Open his final event, and he almost secured the fairytale exit.
Such was the interest in the final that Channel Nine delayed its top-rating 6pm news so that Australians could watch Alcott’s Australian Open finale.
He lost out to No.2 seed Sam Schroder, but couldn’t have been more thankful for the way sport had changed his life all those years ago.
“Thank you to every single person for changing my life … it would have been nice to win, to be honest. But I’m the luckiest guy in this country, if not the luckiest guy in the world to love the life that I live.”
Beyond the gold medals and beyond the titles, one of Alcott’s greatest achievements came in that 2022 year when he was named Australian of the Year. He was also appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) that year for “distinguished service to paralympic sport, particularly to tennis, and as a role model for people with disability, and to the community through a range of organisations”.
One of Alcott’s proudest impacts off the court has been in the establishment and growth of the Dylan Alcott Foundation which is committed to breaking down financial and societal barriers and creating direct opportunities for young people living with disability, to build a more accessible and inclusive world.
As he said in his acceptance speech: “To be named Australian of the Year and to get it for not just being good at tennis, but for the work off the court … my purpose 10 years ago, yesterday, today and as Australian of the Year, it’s never changed.”
“It’s not to win tennis tournaments, it’s to change perceptions so people with disabilities live the lives that they deserve to live.
“To be given that honour, to hold that platform to be able to do that, it’s huge, and I’m just so grateful and thankful … it’s unbelievable.”
Honours & Achievements
- 2011: Sport Australia Hall of Fame Scholarship and Mentor Program recipient, mentored by Andrew Gaze AM
- 2016: Named Australian Paralympian of the Year
- 2016: Named Australian Male Paralympian of the Year
- 2016: Awarded the Newcombe Medal, the first wheelchair tennis player to receive the award
- 2021: Awarded the Newcombe Medal (joint winner with Ash Barty)
- 2022: Named Australian of the Year
- 2022: Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to Paralympic sport, particularly tennis, as a role model for people with disability, and to the community
- 2026: Inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame
Photo courtesy Getty.
