AWANE Najwa

Classification
Open (itftennis.com, 05 Feb 2020)

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (tokyo2020.org, 28 Aug 2020)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (tokyo2020.org, 28 Aug 2020)

Impairment Details
At age nine she was attacked by a dog and due to lack of proper treatment at hospital her left leg was amputated. (tokyo2020.org, 28 Aug 2020)

General
SELF-ACCEPTANCE
She admits that as a teenager she struggled with accepting her impairment, but sport helped her to overcome it. "At age 15, I decided to go all in and love myself. I started with sport and it helped me to accept myself as I am. I was depressed, I didn't want to live anymore. I thought I was nothing because I had lost a leg. I can say that the fact that I got out of it, it's 70% thanks to sport and 30% thanks to fighting with myself." She wants to establish sports academy to help young people with impairments to discover sports. "I'm trying to open an academy. I want to find children and encourage them to start sports. I hope that this will change them, and that we can have more athletes and be more open to people with impairments." (tokyo2020.org, 28 Aug 2020)

TOUGH BEGINNING
When she started to play wheelchair tennis she could not find a club to train, because court managers did not want to allow her to train as they thought that her wheelchair would damage the court surface. "I was rejected by all the clubs in Morocco, so I trained for two years playing against the wall. I was trying to learn the technique, to hit a ball well. Two years later, I was the third best player in Morocco. I knew I could become champion of Morocco and play internationally. I finally found a club where I could train as a professional athlete." (tokyo2020.org, 28 Aug 2020)

ATHLETES COMMISSION
In December 2020 she was elected as a member of the International Tennis Federation [ITF] Wheelchair Tennis Player Council for a two-year term. (lopinion.ma, 11 Dec 2020)