"It's not great because it's a wheelchair" Shingo Kunieda Another battle February 13 15:25

The 9-year-old boy was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer, leaving both legs disabled.

Wheelchair tennis, recommended by his mother, changed the boy's world.

In the nearly 30 years since then, he has battled rivals around the world, battled injuries, and struggled to be recognized as a sport.

After that trip, the words I said were… “Challenge, it’s fun.”

(Interviewer Naoko Hori announcer)

"I'm the strongest!"

Shingo Kunieda, who has led the world wheelchair tennis world, is now 38 years old.

He retired in January after completing his unprecedented feat of a "Lifetime Golden Slam" winning all four Grand Slams and the Paralympics.

Three days after his retirement press conference, he appeared on NHK's live broadcast and looked back on his active life.

Kunieda:

“After participating in the Paralympic Games five times in a row, I have the impression that the environment and the level of attention have changed considerably since the first Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004.”

A motto was always written on the racket that supported his competitive life.

Kunieda's pronoun is "I'm the strongest!"

Mr. Kunieda:

“I did a lot of mental training, and the most effective thing was this training that asserts, ``I'm the strongest!''. In a match that lasts two or three hours, there will always be times when you become timid.”

“But if you are not bullish even when you are weak, you will not be able to serve. I think."

Wheelchair life at the age of 9 Hopes spread by tennis

Mr. Kunieda said, "I am the strongest."

In the shadows, there was a painful time facing illness and injury.

She developed a spinal cord tumor at the age of 9 and was confined to a wheelchair.

Kunieda

: I had spinal cord cancer, so I took anticancer drugs, lost all my hair, and struggled with the disease for about half a year. Of course, I felt frustrated about that.I think I got a lot of support from my friends.”

“Rather than just ‘getting support’ from my friends, I think that having fun every day together brightened my mood. It was fun to play with the kids around me every day, and looking back, I think it was the most fun time.”

Mr. Kunieda says that by playing basketball with his able-bodied friends, he naturally acquired the skills to operate a wheelchair.

At the age of 11, her mother took her to a tennis court, where she discovered wheelchair tennis.

This encounter expanded Mr. Kunieda's world beyond simply starting a new sport.

Kunieda:

“Of course I met wheelchair tennis, but that was the first time I actually met someone in a wheelchair. When I saw my seniors living alone, driving their own cars, and doing everything by themselves, I thought, 'Oh, I can live a normal life even in a wheelchair.' ', and I was able to have a lot of hope even though I was an elementary school student."

Another battle: "I want wheelchair tennis to be recognized as a sport"

Mr. Kunieda distinguished himself when he entered high school, and advanced to a full-fledged competitive level.

She won a gold medal in doubles at the Athens Paralympics.

In 2006, he was ranked number one in the world rankings for the first time, and won two gold medals in the men's singles at the Beijing and London Games.

However, in the shadows, I was attacked by repeated injuries to my right elbow.

In 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Mr. Kunieda

: “The Rio de Janeiro tournament was really the biggest test of my career. Because of that, I was able to review my own technique from the beginning and explore the depth and essence of tennis.I think that was the road from Rio to Tokyo.”

Around this time, another thing Mr. Kunieda struggled with was not to be seen as great because he was playing tennis in a wheelchair, but to be socially recognized as a sport.

In response to NHK's coverage of the Tokyo Paralympics, he said, "It's disgusting to see the excitement like 'Let's make the Paralympics more exciting.'"

Mr. Kunieda

: “Especially right before the Tokyo Games, I thought that there was an atmosphere like ‘Everyone has to get excited about the Paralympics.’ That’s not true. I don't deny the idea that the Paralympic Games will help us realize a society of coexistence, but that's not what I've been doing until now.Wheelchair tennis Above all, I wanted everyone to enjoy and get excited about this sport.”

“When I took the athlete oath at the Tokyo Olympics, I said, ‘To make the world a better, more inclusive society,’ but that wasn’t my true intention. , I thought that it might not be possible to realize a symbiotic society, and I held onto that belief throughout my career.”

Then came the culmination of the Tokyo Paralympics.

While winning the gold medal again, he felt a big change in society.

Mr. Kunieda

: “For me, the Tokyo Paralympics really felt like a sport. Until now, Kunieda, wheelchair tennis, and world number one may have been well known. However, until the Tokyo Paralympics, most people probably didn't know how they played and what kind of play style they had. I think so."

As a sport, there was a scene that brought to fruition the desire that I have been appealing for many years to overcome the barrier between disabled and able-bodied people.

In November of last year, former world champion Roger Federer visited Japan and held an event, where Mr. Kunieda and Mr. Federer played doubles.

The audience, who saw Kunieda's play for the first time, exclaimed, "He's so cool, he's so amazing."

Mr. Kunieda

: Federer is a player I look up to. Originally, wheelchair tennis was governed by an organization called the International Tennis Federation, and there really is no barrier between wheelchair tennis and able-bodied athletes. The event is held, and the locker room uses the same place.In

that sense, I think it is probably the sport with the lowest barriers among Paralympic sports, and on the contrary, other Paralympic sports also have a unified group. I think it's totally possible to do things together."

I want to continue to develop wheelchair tennis as a sport.

At his retirement press conference, he said he would pass the baton on to his juniors.

“At last year’s Japan Open, I was able to play in front of a packed audience, and I felt that this was the moment wheelchair tennis was accepted as a sport. You may say that this is where the fun starts, but there are already people in Japan who can entrust it to you.”

Basketball, swimming, and..."challenges are fun"

Now that he has retired from the front line of competition, he is also posting on SNS how he is trying to play wheelchair basketball.

What are your plans for the future?

Mr. Kunieda

: “While I was still active, I was thinking a lot about what I should do after retiring, but I couldn’t come up with an answer. Also, I can't swim.Before I became a wheelchair user, I used to swim up to butterfly, but I would drown if I got in the water, so I want to try swimming. I would like to do anything if everyone requests it.Challenges are fun.