Brad Parks (tennis)
American wheelchair tennis player (born 1957)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brad Alan Parks (born April 1, 1957)[1] is an American wheelchair tennis player[2] who co-invented wheelchair tennis with Jeff Minnebraker.
United States| Full name | Brad Alan Parks[1] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country (sports) | United States | ||||||||
| Born | April 1, 1957 Orange, California, U.S. | ||||||||
| Plays | Right-handed[1] | ||||||||
Medal record
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Life and career
Parks was born in Orange, California.[1] He attended a dental program at the University of Utah.[3][4] At the age of 18, he participated at a freestyle skiing competition in Park City, Utah.[5][6] While participating, Parks performed a special skilled stunt which he then went of the ramp from the competition.[6] He was supposed to land on his skis, but then landing on his back in an icebound surface causing him in an injury.[1][6] With being injured, Parks was paralyzed from his vertebrate anatomy hips.[1] He then created a sport for people with disabilities using wheelchairs, in which Parks had help from tennis player, Jeff Minnebraker, in 1977.[1] Parks creation was wheelchair tennis, in which he thought of the idea in the hospital with his injury.[1] With Minnebraker, they've both created the rules for wheelchair tennis.[5]
As a Uniqlo Wheelchair Tennis Tour player during the 1990s, Parks won five singles and seven doubles titles at Championship Series events.[7][8] He also reached the quarterfinals at the men's singles event during the 1994 Wheelchair Tennis Masters.[9] Park competed at the 1992 Summer Paralympics, in the first wheelchair tennis competition at the Paralympics Games.[5] During his events, Parks reach the quarterfinals in the men's singles.[10] He was awarded the gold medal with Randy Snow in the men's doubles event.[1][5]
Parks co-founded the National Foundation of Wheelchair Tennis with Dave Saltz in 1980.[11] He then was the first initialed president of the International Wheelchair Tennis Federation, in 1988.[1][5] With his creation, the United States Tennis Association created an award called "The Brad Parks Award", in 2002.[1] He became honored in the International Tennis Hall of Fame, being placed on the contributor category, in 2010.[1] In 2016, Parks was the recipient of the Philippe Chatrier Award by the International Tennis Federation.[12] Apart from tennis, Park won medals in wheelchair racing at the World Disabled Olympics and the National Wheelchair Olympics.[13] He joined the Wheelchair Tennis Hall of Champions in 2026 for the International Tennis Federation.[14]
