SHUKER Lucy

Classification
Open (itftennis.com, 05 Feb 2020)

Type of Impairment
Spinal Cord Injuries (Athlete, 11 Aug 2015)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (Athlete, 11 Aug 2015)

Impairment Details
She has T4 paraplegia as the result of a motorcycle accident in 2001. (Athlete, 11 Aug 2015)

General
COMING OUT
She says that her family became more accepting of her sexuality after her accident. "When I was growing up I had boyfriends, so it's one of those things where you start to have feelings and when you first fall in love with somebody who's of the same sex, you're sometimes battling with that within yourself. I remember going to my brother's wedding and thinking I could be robbing parents of this day if I was to be in a relationship with a woman, but obviously there are same sex marriages too. To me, I'm happy with who I am and who I'm in love with. If I need to be labelled as gay I'm happy to be labelled as that. For my parents, when I had my accident, they got to meet a lot of my friends they potentially wouldn't have met before. I had friends who were going through transition and my nana actually met them and then they suddenly realised that just because someone might look a little bit more masculine, that actually they had the biggest of hearts and the gentlest of natures. They actually accepted my sexuality far easier at that point. So, in some ways my accident was a blessing." (lta.org.uk, 26 Jun 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In 2020 she was appointed the National School Sport Champion for tennis by the Lawn Tennis Association [LTA]. The role saw she and other athletes promote sport among young people in partnership with British charity the Youth Sport Trust. She has also served as vice chairperson on the International Tennis Federation's [ITF] Wheelchair Tennis Player Council. (lta.org.uk, 19 Jun 2020; bbc.co.uk, 11 Jul 2019)

She and teammate Jordanne Whiley became the first British female wheelchair tennis players to win medals at the Paralympic Games, when they claimed bronze in women's doubles at the 2012 Games in London. (SportsDeskOnline, 16 Mar 2020)