Paralympics 2016: Dylan Alcott wins two gold medals in two different sports to become 'luckiest guy in the world'

Alcott suffers from paraplegia but has not let his disability stop him from conquering both wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis

Dylan Alcott won gold in the men's quad doubles alongside Heath Davidson at the Paralympics (Getty)

Australian Paralympian Dylan Alcott has double the reason to celebrate after he won his second gold medal at the Rio Paralympics in a completely different sport to his first achievement.

Alcott won the men’s tennis quad doubles final on Tuesday alongside partner Heath Davidson, defeating their American opponents in the final to win Paralympic gold in Rio de Janeiro. Alcott’s achievement is a commendable feat on its own, but the fact that it adds to the gold medal he won at Beijing 2008 makes it all the more remarkable.

Eight years ago, Alcott was part of Australia’s men’s wheelchair basketball team that won gold in the 2008 Paralympic Games. The team followed up their success with a silver medal at London 2012 after losing the final to Canada.

Alcott was just 17 when he competed in Beijing, having taken up Paralympic competition from an early age after being born with a tumour around his spinal cord. The Australian underwent surgery as a newborn which left him with paraplegia, but that hasn’t stopped him reaching the peak of the Paralympics for a second time.

“It’s my gold medal in a second sport, and if you told a kid at school who was getting bullied about his disability that, when I was 8 years old, there’s no way I would have believed it,” Alcott told Channel 7 after his and Davidson’s success. “I’m just the luckiest guy in the world.”

Alcott is young enough to be eyeing the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics for further success, but he could yet add to his medal collection in Rio as he competes in the men’s quad singles later this week.