Lucy Shuker: ‘I’m working in this sport and looking for me. This is not a Paralympic Games’|Tennis

“ tThere are thousands of people here with disabilities. “Just because you have someone, it doesn’t mean you have to stop living,” Lucy Shuker said. Lucy Shuker calmly reflects on her journey over twenty years and the message she hopes it conveys. Shuker is arguably full of these views. At the age of 44, she showed the highest level of racing team at the age of 44, her highest level of player, her biggest member, her biggest member.

This journey begins with life-changing adversity. Shortly after Shuker graduated from college and passed the driving test, now 21, was involved in a motorcycle crash that paralyzed her from her chest. She stayed in the hospital for 10 months when she tried to satisfy the reality that three-quarters of her body were no longer working.

Shuker encountered fate for the first time in her first game of wheelchair tennis while she continued to recover. She happened to buy her first chair from a company run by British four-wheeled wheelchair legend Peter Norfolk. During their conversation, Shuker’s affinity for badminton before the accident prompted Norfolk to recommend participating in wheelchair tennis.

After the accident, she readjusted her life and Shuke found comfort on the court with her healthy family and friends. “I’m just working on this sport to find me again, in order to find the fun of a sport,” she said. “It’s not about being a Paralympic.”

She took it far beyond her imagination. Shuker’s honors rank 5th in singles matches, while doubles are 3rd, including a silver medal in women’s doubles at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. With her former partner Jordanne, they became the first British woman to receive a wheelchair tennis medal at London in 2012. Shuker won 129 titles in singles and doubles and was the UK’s flag bearer at the 2021 Paralympic Games.

These achievements are even more significant given the importance of her accident. In the early stages of recovery, Shuke was told that her disability was too severe to compete in the highest level of wheelchair tennis, a series of disabilities. “I found myself comparing myself to those with fewer disabilities,” she said. “What followed was struggle and questioning: ‘Do I belong?’ But I have years of experience.

Incorporating wheelchair tennis into some of the biggest games is one of the most important developments in professional games. Witnessing players such as the unrivalled 42-time Grand Slam champion in the Netherlands, Britain’s Alfie Hewett won the final days of the Grand Slam, a core part of the Grand Slam experience, with more fans familiarizing themselves with the stories of these players every year. This year, the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open have expanded from eight players to 16 players, highlighting the development of the sport.

However, it is easy to forget the gradual step by step of this process. Since Wimbledon finally joined the other three games in 2016, singles have competed in all Grand Slam tournaments. Wheelchair tennis has developed dramatically since Shuker first started the sport. She believes it is crucial to have more integration in the association of tennis professionals and women’s tennis associations, “it helps drive [wheelchair tennis]She said. “She said. This helps raise awareness, hoping it will increase athlete profiles and increase sponsorship opportunities.”

As the platform grows, Shuke also has more opportunities to advocate a career close to her inner self. She is the LTA Youth Ambassador, who she uses to promote her role in tennis at school, a well-known effort, and UK physical education teachers are 7,000 fewer than PE teachers before the 2012 Olympics. The LTA program combines more than 26,000 teachers to provide tennis at the school through free online and in-person training courses.

“If you can get young people to start playing tennis, then it’s social, physical, mental benefits,” Shuke said. “There are many benefits – teamwork, problem solving, hand-eye coordination. While technology is developing, more and more people are becoming more active, and I think it’s natural – it’s iPad, games – games – but physical exercise is so important. ”

Shuker’s lifestyle as a tennis player demonstrates her freedom in some ways. She has been traveling around the world for the past two decades while she pursues her goals in the world discipline. She plays one of the most individualistic sports, on the court, she and her partner are the author’s own destiny. However, her travels also made her face to face with one of the biggest barriers to freedom in daily life for many wheelchair users: accessibility. The more governments around the world try to accommodate wheelchair users in towns and cities, the more independent they will be.

“That’s a dream,” she said. You want it to be almost like you don’t have to think about it. You just want to make visiting the norm. I don’t want to create a world for wheelchair users, people with disabilities, but can accommodate it, can think, just give a moment on access, compared to the ladder, it’s the opposite of people’s lives, which means their lives, which means these people and put them in the opposite range. Everyone is involved, and I hope everyone in the world feels different. ”

After entering this twenty years of Odyssey, life has not yet begun to slow down. Shuker just returned from the long-term tournament in the United States while we were talking and won her 36th professional singles title a day ago in Houston. She won her 93rd doubles title in Baton Rouge a few weeks ago. Between these wins, Shuke won the second Miami Open Wheelchair Tennis Invitational in ATP and WTA events.

After a few short days, Shuker left the next challenge, but she lost the women’s doubles final at the Japan Open in Fukuoka on Saturday. Next comes a busy clay field season.

Over the years, she continued to compete and win the highest victories while finding the meaning and enjoyment of the game. In other words, she continued to live her own life.