Dylan received the Australian of the year award for 2021.
For the first time in the award’s 62-year history, a person with a visible disability has been named Australian of the Year.
Dylan has risen above many of life’s challenges and exceeded in numerous sports (Basketball, Paralympian, and Tennis). However, it wasn’t just his outstanding sporting abilities he was recognised for. Dylan received an Order of Australia medal in 2009 for services to sport, and in 2017 he founded the Dylan Alcott Foundation to provide scholarships and grant funding to marginalised Australians with a disability 🦸♂️
In the same year he co-founded disability and accessibility training start-up Get Skilled Access.
He also organised AbilityFest, Australia’s first and only inclusive, fully accessible music festival, and wrote his best-selling autobiography Able 🥇
In his acceptance speech, Alcott said that, as a teenager, he hated using a wheelchair because he didn’t see anyone who looked like him in the mainstream media. Dylan is now changing that view for the disabled and representing them proudly.
Further to this, Dylan last night announced his retirement from Tennis. Overall, he has won 44 titles including 15 Grand Slams 🎾🎾
It was his final match last night, which was so important, channel 9 made the decision to delay all of their news bulletins to watch the match through. This has only ever happened for two sporting moments prior 👍
If you were to tell anyone a decade ago, that Channel 9 would push back their daily news bulletin by 45 minutes to watch the final of a wheelchair tennis match, it would be unthinkable 😲
Dylan has contributed a significant amount to the disability community and inspired so many, all while remaining humble.
Well done Dylan, you are an inspiration and we cannot wait to see what your next achievement is ❤
– HCG Team