ITF

62 BRAD PARKS United States BARCELONA 1992 MEN'S WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES GOLD B arcelona was kind of the end of my career. I knew it would be one of my last matches. It was my first time ever playing with Randy Snow. It was pretty special. It was a great match and a lot of people told Randy and I afterwards that it was probably the best wheelchair doubles match they'd ever seen at that particular time. And we had a massive crowd for wheelchair tennis and that was quite special. It was fun. We were playing a team that had beaten us at the World Team Cup the year before. I felt like I had a lot of insecurities in my game, so to actually serve out the match, although it felt like I was struggling – it was the end of my career and I didn't have the confidence – it was real special and we had a lot of fun practising during the tournament. The thing about the Paralympics that was really special was the camaraderie amongst the tennis players. It was so close, we were all so close, and we all just really had a great experience together, I think, participating and competing in that event. I felt I was pretty much done after Barcelona, so I felt like it was a great way to finish, with a victory in the doubles. And I was happy with a quarterfinal finish in singles. I actually won two medals in 1980 in track. Tennis was just beginning in those years, and I never dreamed tennis would ever get to the point that we were in the Paralympics or anything else. Participating in track was fantastic, winning the gold medals there. So winning this one in Barcelona was really unexpected. I never expected to have tennis in the Paralympics and I look back at it and it's probably more special to me now than at the time. It was fantastic and I was very proud. It's a difficult thing to accomplish, to win a gold medal. And I had one shot, really. Randy and I had one shot and that was it. We didn't have four years to the next Paralympics like some of these younger guys are getting. I can't say I think about it all the time. I do have a photo of the six of us on the court, holding hands and arms up in the air. It's a small photo but it's up in my office and I'm proud to be with those guys on the court, and you see in the background the stands are filled with people. After a training session when Randy and I were on the court, Randy reaches down and grabs the mud from the clay court and goes after me. The next thing I know is we're putting mud all over each other and Wendy [Brad's wife] takes this photo of the two of us and we look like we've been in some kind of battle, a dirt battle, we're covered in this red clay. I think that kind of bonded us a little bit and we had a good laugh about that and it was just kind of fun. I don't know if that helped us win the gold medal, but it certainly brought us closer together. The thing about the Paralympics that was really special was the camaraderie amongst the tennis players.

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