“TThere are thousands of people with disabilities. Lucy Schuker calmly reflects her 20+ years of journey and the message it hopes to convey, so it doesn’t mean you have to stop living.
This journey began with life-changing adversity. At the age of 21, shortly after graduating from university and passing the driving license exam, Shuker was involved in crashing a motorcycle that had paralyzed from his chest. She spent 10 months in the hospital as she tried to agree with the reality that three-quarters of her body stopped working.
During her continued recovery, Shuker’s first encounter with wheelchair tennis was doomed. She happened to have bought her first chair from a company run by British quad wheelchair tennis legend Peter Norfolk. In their conversation, Shuker’s affinity for badminton before her accident prompted Norfolk to suggest taking up wheelchair tennis.
She was brought to life after the accident, but Shuker found comfort in court along with healthy family and friends. “I just started playing sports to find me and enjoy playing sports,” she says. “It wasn’t about becoming a Paralympian.”
She took it even more than she had imagined. Former number 5 of singles and third of doubles, Shuker’s honors include silver medals in women’s doubles at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Together with her former partner Jordanne, they became the first British woman to win a wheelchair tennis medal in London in 2012. Schuker won 129 titles in singles and doubles and was the UK’s flag bearer at the 2021 Paralympics.
These results are even more surprising given the importance of her accident. In the early stages of her recovery, Schuker was told that her impairment was too serious and she didn’t want to compete in the highest level of wheelchair tennis. “I think I’m comparing myself to people with fewer disabilities,” she says. “Along with that, there are struggles and questions: ‘Do I belong?’ But I have years of experience. I still have a drive to achieve more.
Integrating wheelchair tennis into some of the biggest tournaments is quietly one of the most important recent developments in professional games. When they witnessed players such as Diede de Groot, an unparalleled 42-time Grand Slam champion from the Netherlands, the British Alfie Hewett Tussling won. This year, the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open expanded from 8-16 player draws, highlighting the development of the sport.
However, it is easy to forget how slow this process was. The single has been contested in all Grand Slam tournaments since 2016, when Wimbledon finally joined the other three. Since Shuker first began playing sports, wheelchair tennis has developed dramatically. She believes it is important for more integration in the Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association Event Association “It helps drive [wheelchair tennis]She says. “It helps to raise awareness. Hopefully, it will raise athlete profiles and increase sponsorship opportunities.”
As her platform grows, Shuker has increased the chance to defend causes that are close to her heart. She is the youth ambassador for the LTA, a role she used to promote tennis at schools, and a remarkable effort during a time when the UK has 7,000 fewer PE teachers than before the 2012 Olympic Games. The LTA program trained more than 26,000 teachers to provide schools through a combination of free online and in-person training courses.
“If you can get young people to start playing tennis, there are so many benefits from it, whether it’s social, physical, mental. When people get a bug from a younger age, they’re more likely to continue that later in their lives,” says Schuker. “There are so many benefits, including teamwork, problem solving, hand and eye adjustment. Technology is advancing, but more and more people are becoming active, and that’s natural – it’s an iPad, a game – but physical activity is very important.”
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Schuker’s lifestyle as a tennis player means in a way her freedom. She has traveled the world for the past 20 years, pursuing goals with discipline. She plays one of the most individualistic sports, and in court she, along with her partner, is her own destiny, the author. However, her trip also turned her face with accessibility, one of the biggest obstacles to freedom for many wheelchair users in their daily lives. The more governments around the world try to accommodate wheelchair users in towns and cities, the more independent they become.
“That’s the dream,” she says. “You want to make sure you don’t have to think about it. You just want it to be the norm. I appreciate that the world wasn’t created for wheelchair users, not for people with disabilities, but can be accommodated and thought up. I’m involved and no one feels different.
Twenty years after this Odyssey, life has not begun to slow down. Schuker had just returned from a long-term tournament in the US at the time of the conversation, winning his 36th career single title in Houston a day ago. A few weeks ago, she won her 93rd doubles title at Baton Rouge. During these wins, Shuker won his second Miami Open Wheelchair Tennis Invitational in the ATP and WTA events.
After a few fleeting days at home, Schuker set out for the next challenge, but lost in the women’s doubles final at the Japan Open in Fukuoka on Saturday. Next is the busy clay coat season.
After all these years, she continues to compete and win at the top, finding meaning and fun from the game. In other words, she lives on life.
