SAIF Golden Charter

Overcoming adversity

SAIF members attending the AGM and banquet weekend on 24 to 26 March will be able to meet inspirational athlete Gordon Reid.

Born in Alexandria, Scotland, in 1991, Gordon was a fit, keen and talented tennis player until the week before his 13th birthday, when he was tragically struck down by a rare condition called Transverse Myelitis.

Despite being paralysed from the waist down, Gordon turned things around and started playing the game he loved, only this time in a wheelchair. Aged 16, he proudly wore the GB shirt at his first Paralympic Games in Beijing.

As a junior on the world wheelchair tennis circuit, Gordon was ranked number one and won multiple titles.

He has represented GB at the Invacare World Team Cup for the past seven years and helped GB to gain promotion to the World Group One, and in 2015, Gordon led the team to become the first British team to win the World title, beating the French in the final.

Gordon’s continued hard work and dedication was rewarded with his selection at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where he reached the quarter finals of both the singles and doubles events.

A year to remember – 2016

Last year, Gordon won his firstever Grand Slam singles wheelchair title at the Australian Open, followed by the doubles title at Roland Garros.

In July 2016, he followed this with his second Grand Slam victory in the inaugural men’s singles wheelchair event at the Wimbledon Championship, as well as winning the men’s doubles. And at the Rio Paralympics 2016, representing GB, Gordon won the gold medal in the men’s wheelchair tennis singles and the silver medal in the doubles.