In 2014 Heath Davidson wasn’t even playing competitive tennis. He’d walked away from the sport in 2005 at the age of 18.
By the middle of 2016 he was a Paralympic Gold Medalist.
Heath contracted Transverse Myelitis as a child - a neurological condition that inflames the spinal cord - and became a paraplegic.
Although confined to a wheelchair, Heath was as active as could be and enjoyed his sport. At the age of 14 he took up wheelchair tennis and found he not only enjoyed it but was good at it.
After four years though Heath decided a career in tennis wasn’t for him and concentrated on a regular career.
A decade later he decided he’d have a crack at making it in wheelchair tennis and enlisted a tennis coach as well as strength and conditioning coach Christian Woodford (who I interviewed in Episode 005).
It was early 2015 and Heath made progress incredibly quickly, qualifying for Australia’s 2016 Paralympic Team.
Playing alongside good friend Dylan Alcott they won Paralympic Gold in the wheelchair doubles.
Since then Heath has climbed the tennis rankings to currently sit fifth in the world with his target to be number one - a position currently held by Alcott.
Heath talks about his challenges throughout his career, his comeback to tennis and winning gold as well as his goals into the future.
Heath can be followed on Facebook here.
Christian’s episode can be accessed here.
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