ITF

18 Winter 2022/23 ITF World NIELS VINK INTERVIEW By his own admission, Niels Vink is "living the dream." It's a dream that was ignited by a visit to the London 2012 Paralympics, and the latest instalment saw the 20-year-old end 2022 as the first Dutchman to be crowned ITF Wheelchair Quad World Champion. "It is a really special and an amazing feeling to be named World Champion for the first time in my career," Vink said. "It was the best year so far for me. A few dreams became reality. I became World No. 1, I played in all four Grand Slams, I won my first and second Slams and three Grand Slams in doubles. It gives me lots of confidence for 2023 and I'm most looking forward to the Grand Slams again." The word 'dream' comes up a lot when Vink considers his journey to the top of the sport, and while it is a word that many athletes use after achieving their biggest successes, in Vink's case there is a particular conviction in his voice each time he says it which reinforces the magnitude of the dream. Vink contracted meningococcal sepsis at the age of one, the bacterial infection resulting in him losing both of his legs, fingertips and various patches of skin on his upper body. He had never played any sport until his mother took him to the London 2012 Paralympics, but the occasion lit a flame within the then nine-year-old schoolboy. "I had never seen anything so big as the Paralympic Games," he said. "It was a whole new world to me and I said, 'I want to get to the Paralympics', but I didn't know how. At that stage I didn't do any sport and I didn't know about wheelchair tennis back then." Shortly after his return to the Netherlands and eager to start his quest to become a Paralympian, Vink attended the Cruyff Foundation's annual sports day at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, where he tried a variety of Paralympic sports. Talent scouts subsequently invited hm to try wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball, but with Vink having also started to play wheelchair tennis at a local tennis club, by the age of 11 he'd fallen in love with the latter. dream the

• Cover