Phil Pratt – Multi-Talented, Multi-skilled, And Heading For Paris This Summer

By Graham Thomas

Phil Pratt will be at the Paralympics in Paris later this year, but it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine the highlight of his summer could have been playing at Wimbledon.

Pratt is the man who captained Great Britain’s wheelchair basketball team to World Championship glory in 2018.

The 30-year-old Cardiff-born and raised athlete returned to the World Championships last year, where GB were runners-up, and he will be there again at the Paralympics in August.

But had life taken a different turn then his wheelchair could have been rolling out across the green lawns of Wimbledon in July, instead.

Pratt may have had to learn his sporting skills from a sitting position since he was a small child, but that did not prevent him from trying a variety of sports.

“Back in the day when I was a kid, I tried loads of different sports – wheelchair tennis, wheelchair racing, sledge hockey, all kinds of different stuff,” he says.

“Wheelchair tennis was the first serious one for me. I had decent hand-eye coordination and I put a lot of hours into it.

“I can’t remember which for sure, but I got to either ranked second or third in the world for U18s. I was pretty good at it.”

Wales’ Phil Pratt To Lead World Wheelchair Basketball Champs GB In Euro Bid

Lottery funding

A dozen years in the sport has allowed Pratt to develop those friendships and he says his career has also now given him a broader appreciation of the structures that underpin disabled sport.

In the 30th anniversary year of National Lottery funding for sport in the UK, he says: “At first, I was just obsessed with the sport itself and I didn’t really think much about where all the funding was coming from.

“But then you start to reflect about where the funding for equipment, for travel, for training sessions and the rest comes from.

“As a full-time athlete, if it wasn’t for the help of Lottery funding then I wouldn’t be able to do this now.

“And I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get to even regional tournaments when I was young.

“Without the support from things like lottery funding, then our sport as it looks now, just wouldn’t exist.”

Great Britain’s men join the women in the @EuroParaChamps wheelchair basketball final on Saturday as they beat Germany 63-42 in the semi-final. Phil Pratt leads the way with 26 points as GB secure their spot at @Paris2024. pic.twitter.com/KuIoPV5zTf

— John Hobbs (@JohnHobbsTB) August 17, 2023