Heath Davidson
Heath Arthur Davidson, (born 9 May 1987) is an Australian quad wheelchair tennis player. He represented Australia in at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, where he teamed up with Dylan Alcott to win the Men's Quad Doubles gold medal. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, he teamed with Alcott to win the Men's Quad Doubles silver medal. Early life. Davidson was born on 9 May 1987. He contracted viral transverse myelitis at the age of five months and this led to paraplegia. He attended Parkdale Secondary College in Melbourne. Tennis. Davidson started playing wheelchair tennis at the age  of 14. In 2001, At the Australian Disabled Games in Queensland he won a bronze medal in wheelchair tennis and two silver medals for table tennis. After ten years he retired from the sport. After Davidson returned to wheelchair tennis, he teamed with Dylan Alcott to win the prestigious BNP Paribas World Team Cup held in Tokyo, Japan in May 2016. They upset Great Britain in the final. Davidson and Alcott won the Men's Quad Doubles gold medal at the Rio Paralympics. They defeated the reigning champions David Wagner and Nick Taylor in the gold medal match 4–6, 6–4 , 7–5. In the Men's Quad Singles, Davidson lost to Andy Lapthorne (GBR) 0–2 (1–6, 2–6) in the quarter-finals. In May 2017, Davidson won his first international quad singles title by winning the Korea Open. In 2019, Davidson and his partner Niels Vink won the 2019 Wheelchair Tennis Masters in quad doubles. At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, he teamed with Alcott to win the Men's Quad Doubles silver medal. He lost in the Men's Quad Singles quarter final. Recognition. Davidson won the Variety Australia Young Sports Achievers Award in 2003 with Dylan Alcott. In 2016, he shared  Tennis Australia's Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability with doubles partner Dylan Alcott. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2017.