The National Lottery and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) are releasing a short film in recognition of their support for ParalympicsGB’s wheelchair tennis players ahead of the Tokyo games.
The film, produced as part of the official partnership between the National Lottery and ParalympicsGB, features two-time silver medallist and 17-time Grand Slam champion Alfie Hewett, double bronze medallist Lucy Shuker, and three-time Paralympic medallist Andy Lapthorne as they go through their final preparations on court before the 2020 Tokyo Games get underway on August 24.
The three athletes were picked by the filmmakers to demonstrate their ‘power, speed and the athleticism that makes them Paralympians and demonstrate why they represent some of the greatest champions in the game’.
The National Lottery is also the official partner of the LTA’s Wheelchair Performance Pathway and ‘provides crucial support to the current elite level of the sport as they prepare for Tokyo 2020’ whilst also encouraging more young disabled people to pick up a racket and begin participating in ‘one of the most successful disability sport programmes in the UK’.
Shuker, the first woman to win a Team GB medal in wheelchair tennis alongside Jordanne Whiley in 2012, said: “A really big thank you to everyone who plays The National Lottery and buys a ticket. It’s through that money that we can become full-time athletes and afford to train, compete and hopefully bring back medals for our country to celebrate.”
The National Lottery is the official partner of the LTA’s Wheelchair World-Class Programme for the next two years. The money for this commercial partnership is coming from a National Lottery promotional fund and is not being funded by money allocated for National Lottery Good Causes or by the lottery’s operator Camelot.
