Angelica Bernal

Started: She began the sport in 2006 in Bogota, Colombia. (Athlete, 29 Aug 2016) Reason: She took up the sport after attending a clinic for young Para athletes run by Dutch wheelchair tennis coach Aad Zwaan. "After the clinic, he persuaded me to continue playing. In the beginning, me and my parents weren't convinced about using the wheelchair, but one of my aunts is a tennis coach and director of the venue where they organised the clinic, and she taught me how to use it. Two months later, I played at a junior camp in Argentina where I did very well. I came back very excited, and I started playing more." (Athlete, 26 Jul 2016; lavozdeperu.com, 29 Jan 2020; paralympic.org, 07 Sep 2020) Ambition: To win a medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris and to win a Grand Slam title. (paralympic.org, 24 Jul 2024; Athlete, 26 Aug 2024) Additional Info: WHEELCHAIR TENNIS SCHOOL In 2010 she and her family founded the Semillas sin Barreras wheelchair tennis school in Bogota, Colombia. "My parents, coaches and I thought that it was a good idea to create a place to provide an opportunity for those kids with disabilities who don't know about Paralympic sport, don't have the resources or don't have access to a sports centre. In the beginning, I used to coach the kids with my dad, but when I started travelling more, my dad couldn't train them all. The Instituto Deportivo de Bogota sent us a coach to train the kids so if I'm not in Bogota, the school remains open." (paralympic.org, 24 Jul 2024, 07 Sep 2020, 26 Apr 2020; cpc.org.co, 25 May 2022) JOURNEY TO WHEELCHAIR TENNIS Her father encouraged her to try several sports as a child before she found her way to wheelchair tennis. She initially played tennis with a prosthesis before switching to wheelchair tennis in 2006. "My dad was an athlete and I loved playing various sports. When I was six or seven, I started practising various sports with my dad, using the prosthesis. I played basketball, volleyball, football and also tennis, which I liked the most because it was an individual sport. I did everything else in my daily life with the prosthesis so it didn't fit into my head that I would sit in a wheelchair, At first I saw the wheelchair as a problem, but the moment I sat in the chair it was completely different. I felt free and loved being able to move freely with the chair all over the court with the wheelchair." (paralympic.org, 24 Jul 2024)