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You are in: Basketball: Disability |  |
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Ade's Olympic dreams | |
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Ade feeling the heat of the battle with the USA
BBC TV presenter and GB wheelchair basketball star Ade Adepitan wants to be the world's best and talks about the fun he had at the Sydney Paralympics. Watch my story in video I work on the BBC's Xchange and Holiday programmes but I still find time to play basketball. I started when I was about 13 after seeing some of the national team players doing some mad moves at the Stoke Mandeville Games. It is a fast, exciting, action-packed sport and it's what I'm all about.
I began playing for fun but the better I got and the more I played for the Milton Keynes Aces, I realised I could play for the national team and go to the Olympics. Competing against the best in the world is what really drives me in the sport. I was really disappointed at not making the squads for the 1996 Atlanta Games and the European Championships the following year.
I didn't give up though and then there it was - the letter saying I was going to the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. It was always my dream to go and it still gives me goose-bumps when I read it. Sydney was out of this world. I remember waiting in the tunnel and there were 110,000 people cheering us on. Tummy trouble I was gob-smacked and had tears in my eyes - 10 years of hard work had been worth it. And then we played for bronze against America in front of 20,000 people. My stomach was going around like a washing machine. In the end, it was a gutting experience. One second away from a medal when they won with the last shot of the game. It took four months to get over it and seeing it on TV all the time didn't help. You have to look forward, and with the young team we have and our ambitious coach David Titmuss, I see us going to Athens and doing well. It's all about working hard and being the best you possibly can. And you have to think about wearing that medal. That's what it is all about.
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