ITF

168 D avid: In Athens, I played my doubles partner Nick in the semifinals of the singles and it was a tight match. He was rolling me and I finally just clicked and figured it out and started hitting my shots. Later that night it all sank in and I was like, "Holy moly, I am, no matter what, getting a medal." That didn't deter me, I wanted to win. Unfortunately I didn't. Nick: It's bittersweet. I always tell people the hardest part is the fact that in the Paralympics, if you are on the podium with the silver medal, you're the only loser up there. It's a hard pill to swallow, but you do and you move on. To win the gold in doubles in Athens was then a dream come true. We trained our butts off for that match. Our opponents Peter Norfolk and Mark Eccleston were a dominant force, strong players, and we knew what we were getting ourselves into. We didn't know we were actually going to do it, it just happened. It felt great. David: To me, the Paralympics is the pinnacle. I'm a pretty patriotic person and just growing up, I remember looking at my parents and saying I want to be an Olympian some day. I'm sure for the parents of a severely disabled kid they didn't even know what the Paralympics were, that was probably a hard thing for them to hear. I don't know what age I heard about the Paralympics but I didn't think it was anything I could do. And then tennis came along. At the Paralympics, people are there because they enjoy disabled sport and they want to see what disabled athletes can do within the confines of their disability. I think at Grand Slams we are a bit of a sideshow. I've played Athens, Beijing and London and every single one of those venues has been sold out for every match. Beijing was huge. The scale of what Beijing was, was unreal. You can't even put it in words how extravagant it was, they went above and beyond wildest expectations. And then you get to London and they raised the bar again just when you thought it couldn't be raised. Nick: Some Olympians and Paralympians say that their favourite Games is their first Games. I don't know about that, I loved Athens, I loved all three of them, but another match probably topped that one, the one in London [the doubles final]. It was the most emotional. What made it so amazing was that not only were we playing two guys from England in England, we were playing two guys from London in London, and the crowd were really into it. I'll never forget in London there were these two Americans and they were in a sea of Brits. They had their flag and every single time we won a point, they were on their feet, screaming as loud as they could. The atmosphere was more like a soccer game than a tennis match. The atmosphere was more like a soccer game than a tennis match. NICK TAYLOR & DAVID WAGNER United States ATHENS 2004 QUAD WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES GOLD BEIJING 2008 QUAD WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES GOLD LONDON 2012 QUAD WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES GOLD also DAVID WAGNER: ATHENS 2004 QUAD WHEELCHAIR SINGLES SILVER BEIJING 2008 QUAD WHEELCHAIR SINGLES BRONZE LONDON 2012 QUAD WHEELCHAIR SINGLES SILVER also NICK TAYLOR: LONDON 2012 QUAD WHEELCHAIR SINGLES BRONZE

• Cover