ITF

ITFWORLD SPRING 2016 15 www.itftennis.com "I get a lot of credit for starting wheelchair tennis, but probably the smartest thing I ever did was to hire Ellen de Lange," he said. "She led the drive to be a part of the Paralympics and Grand Slams. "When I was the head of wheelchair tennis we were an asterisk in the rules of the game which I thought was huge. Now, largely thanks to Ellen, it's actually in the rules. It's way more than I ever dreamed of. Why, we even have a wheelchair manufacturing company now making chairs specifically for tennis." Parks had come up with the idea for the sport in 1976 while he was in hospital recovering from an accident. He was a freestyle ski enthusiast of considerable potential and was preparing for a competition in Utah when he over-rotated on a back layout flip, landed badly and broke his back. He was paralysed from the waist down and 18 years old. "It was a poor winter, even though it was January, it was kind of spring- like conditions, so it was firm," he said. "As a result, they took the snow on the landing side of the jump and used that for the kicker. I remember looking at it and thinking, 'Okay, I've got to make sure I clear that, I don't want to land in that cavity'. "I maybe got a little more speed than usual, which might have led to the over- rotation. I'm not sure. I'd done backflips hundreds of times. I knew straightaway I'd done something [bad] because I couldn't feel my legs. I felt the pull, the break, which was painful. It was pretty scary." He had been musing over what sort of activity he could take up while he lay in hospital and his tennis game was something he had wanted to improve even before his accident. On his return to hospital to begin his rehabilitation he met a wheelchair athlete and recreational therapist called Jeff Minnebraker. Together the two men began formulating ideas and rules for wheelchair tennis and it was Parks' new found friend who came up with the idea of two bounces. Minnebraker began building lightweight sports wheelchairs out of his garage and the pair began touring the country promoting the sport. At one of these exhibitions Parks met John Newcombe and the two men became good friends. Newcombe invited Parks to Australia and it was on that trip that he met his wife to be, Wendy. Another former tennis player who befriended Parks was Charlie Pasarell, who introduced him to the United States Tennis Association. It was through its director of community tennis, Eve Kraft, that wheelchair tennis came under the auspice of the ITF. IT OUT Parks, third from right, winning doubles gold at Barcelona 1992 with R andy Snow, third left, as wheelchair tennis made its full Paralympic debut

• Cover