Tokyo Paralympics 2021: Dylan Alcott on why the Paralympics is so important to 1.3 billion people

For two weeks every four years people with a disability rule the world - but the Paralympics represents so much more than a sporting event, DYLAN ALCOTT writes.

We all know everyone loves dessert better than the main course.

It’s always that beautiful tasty treat that leaves a smile on our face and that’s exactly what the Tokyo Paralympic Games is about to do.

I’m proud to be a Paralympian. I’m proud of my disability, and when people call me an ‘Olympian’ I immediately correct them. I have never competed in the Olympics. And I don’t want to either.

To me, and to many of the 1.3 billion people around the world living with disability, the Olympic Games is the warm-up event for the Paralympic Games. For two weeks every four years people with disability rule the world, we are the show and I love it.

Dylan Alcott has won Paralympic gold in two sports. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty

First and foremost, it shows what we can do as elite athletes. There may be a perception that the Paralympics is a bit of a come and try event. That we are all just happy to be there.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. We are elite athletes, we train our backsides off and put on a show every single time we compete.

But what I truly love about the Paralympics is that it represents more than just sport.

It changes perceptions, changes cultures and helps eliminate negative stigmas that society places on people with disability right around the world. It challenges the unconscious bias you may have about what people with disability can really do. And it’s always more than you think.

Dylan Alcott. Picture: Scott Powick

Our team is ready to go. We are grateful for the opportunity to compete and represent our country, especially in the current climate. But we are only here due to the generations of hard work from the paralympians that came before us.

I appreciate that I’m one of the very lucky ones who gets the support in the mainstream, but there are generations of paralympians who have come before me, and a lot in our current team, that don’t get the recognition they deserve.

For the next two weeks every single TV set in Australia is going to be tuned into the Paralympic Games, it is going to be all over the newspapers and you will get to watch some of the most talented athletes, and hear some of the most incredible stories you’ve ever heard.

My first Paralympics was in Beijing in 2008 where as a 17-year-old (with an incredibly bad haircut), I won a gold medal as part of Australia’s wheelchair basketball team.

Four years earlier I hated myself, I hated my life and was embarrassed about my disability. I didn’t think my life was going to amount to anything, but then I found sport.

To then sit on top of the podium side-by-side with my wheelchair basketball teammates was life changing, and these guys had been through a lot to get there.

Dylan Alcott celebrates winning singles gold in Rio. AAP/Jeff Crow

Our captain, Brad Ness, had been an AFL draft hopeful before he lost his leg in a WorkSafe accident on the docks at Fremantle. He obviously never played footy again or walked without a prosthetic.

Another one of my teammates had beaten cancer four times by the age of 15 and lost his leg in the process. Others were left paraplegics from horrific road trauma accidents.

All of us at one point had given up hope because we all thought our lives were over, because we believed what we saw on our TVs, in our newspapers and in our boardrooms. That people with disability can’t do anything. So what’s the point?

But that’s not true. For us there was hope. To then sit on top of that podium side-by-side with tears in our eyes singing the national anthem was one of the best moments of my life.

I don’t take that for granted and that is why the Paralympics is such a special place. There are so many athletes with so many different disabilities who will break down stigmas and change your perceptions over the next two weeks. And most of all they’ll entertain you, showing off their eliteness and putting a smile on your face. The Paralympic Games is a beautiful place that I hold close to my heart. I am so excited for not only what these two weeks will provide but also for what it represents.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for some dessert.