Casey Ratzlaff is taking life match by match. The 26-year-old wheelchair tennis savant is the top-ranked American male wheelchair tennis player and an assistant coach for Dartmouth’s men’s varsity tennis team. Born with the rare disease spina bifida in 1988 — a decade after the first integrated Olympic and Paralympic games — Ratzlaff has grown up in the world of adaptive sports. He has racked up numerous accolades in his young career, winning a silver medal at the 2019 Parapan American Games games in Peru and representing the United States on seven World Team Cups. This summer, he competed at his second Paralympic games in Paris in both the singles and doubles divisions. In singles, Ratzlaff lost in the second round to Brazil’s Daniel Rodrigues. In doubles, Ratzlaff and his partner fell to Argentina in the opening round. The Dartmouth spoke with Ratzlaff to discuss his most recent competition in Paris, his reflections on the people and communities that have shaped him and his ambitions for the future.
You just got back from competing in men’s singles and doubles wheelchair tennis at the 2024 Paralympics. What was that experience like?
CR: Oh, it was great. It’s obviously always an honor when you get to be a part of an event like that. Paris was my second Games — my first one was in Tokyo — so I was hugely excited for another opportunity. Speaking from a tennis standpoint, we played at the Roland Garros site. We sold that place out for an entire weekend. It was unbelievable. It was just amazing how many people were there supporting wheelchair tennis.
How was competing in Paris different from your time in Tokyo?
CR: In Paris, I played in front of stadiums full of people, and it was packed out. You couldn’t get away from people. It was amazing to see how many people were actually there supporting our matches, and there was just a lot more energy and atmosphere around our events. Tokyo was kind of the opposite. It was super cool to be there, and it was run very well despite what was happening — the COVID-19 pandemic. And it was my first Games, so there was obviously something very special about that. But it was a ghost town.
To prepare for the Paralympics, the Paris Paralympic Committee invested heavily in accessible infrastructure. How did you find the accessibility during your time in Paris?
CR: When I did visit the Paralympic Village, it was very nice and seemed to be pretty accessible. I loved how it was laid out, and there were really no inaccessibility issues. At the site itself, where we were competing, that’s a place that’s accessible, so there were no issues there. We felt entirely welcomed and celebrated, and that was an amazing feeling.
I had a unique experience because my team did not stay in the Village. We opted to stay a lot closer to where we were competing, for ease of life being really close to the courts and getting a lot more training time on the court. And I’m glad we did. The one time we went to the Village, I ate there, and I got food poisoning and E. coli, so that wasn’t great.
Do you think that the E. coli affected your play?
CR: It definitely affected my experience. I actually missed the opening ceremony because of it, which was pretty heartbreaking at the moment, because I missed the opening ceremonies in Tokyo as well because of COVID-19 — so this is a long running curse. I think it probably had a little bit of a mental effect, but I didn’t let it get to me.
You were the first American man to play in the open wheelchair tennis division at Wimbledon and have been a trailblazer in some sense. How does that knowledge influence you?
CR: Sometimes it doesn’t feel real. I’m just doing what I love and working hard at it every day. I was able to play Wimbledon for the first time this year, and it was the first time in our sports history that a male from from the United States was in a Wimbledon draw in my division. I’m hugely humbled by that. I think I recognize how much of a difference I can make, and what I’m doing is very special. And I’m hugely appreciative that every day I get to wake up and do this, do this again and work toward my goals.
How do you think that organizations like the Paralympics and other sporting leagues can increase viewership and visibility of sports for athletes with disabilities?
CR: Speaking from my sport specifically, a big way they push the Paralympics is just like, “Look at these people. They’re so motivating. They’re out doing what they love, and that’s a really cool sort of thing,” rather than when you watch the Olympics and you’re like, “Oh, these are the best at what they do. They’re highly disciplined, highly professional athletes.” I think that latter message is what people are starting to appreciate more and more, especially with wheelchair tennis. That’s the message we all want to be pushed more. The Paralympics are not just a big inspiration fest. We’re highly professionalized, high-functioning, hard working athletes. We sacrifice a lot daily to do what we want to do, just like any other athlete.
One of my mentors to this day, and the guy who got me started playing wheelchair tennis, is Nick Taylor. He was born with a disability called arthrogryposis, and it’s a very, very, very severe disability, so he uses a power chair. People will watch him and almost be like, “Oh, look at him. He’s got it so bad, but look at what he’s able to do,” but they don’t understand how much work he put in, how professionalized he is and how much he has sacrificed. I think that’s what people need to appreciate more. We’re not just people who have it bad who are having fun with their lives. No, we’re professional athletes, we work hard, and I think our craft can really be appreciated.
What was your favorite sport — excluding wheelchair tennis — to watch at the Paralympics?
CR: Wheelchair rugby — they call it murder ball — is pretty fun to watch. There’s a guy that played ping pong with his mouth. It’s just incredible how much some people are able to overcome and how they can be professional and high performing at their discipline despite what they have.
You started volunteering as an assistant coach for Dartmouth’s men’s tennis team in 2023. What is it like working with the men’s varsity team?
CR: It’s amazing. I moved here in August of last year, and it’s been absolutely incredible since the moment I got here. I really love the community here at Dartmouth and Hanover and the surrounding areas. From the get-go, I’ve been really welcomed and accepted here. It’s seamless.
I also get to play at a beautiful indoor facility every day, and I have the opportunity to work with the team and learn a lot about the behind the scenes of how to run a Division I men’s tennis team.
You’ve been vocal about your relationship to Christianity, speaking on the Sports Faith Life podcast and interviewing with the magazine Christian Leader. How does your faith impact your perspective on both disability and on sports?
CR: I attribute a lot of my values and my morals to how I was raised and how I was treated, both in and out of my family culture and dynamic. I grew up going to church and being surrounded by a church community. I’ve always been a little bit different from the kids and the people I grew up around because of my disability. Personally, that accepting community really had an influence on the direction I took in my life, because I wasn’t raised to feel any differently from my friends when I was a kid. It’s been a huge influence, and I try to profess my faith through all my walks of life.
Where do you see yourself in the four years leading up to the Los Angeles Olympics?
CR: There are a lot of things that I hope can happen. I want to be top 10 in the world one day. I want to be top five. I want to be number one in the world. I want to be a Grand Slam champion. All these goals that I want to meet are partly out of my control. Comparison is the killer of happiness — if you’re always looking at the finish line, it’s going to be a lot harder to enjoy what you do on a daily basis. I try to fall in love with the process of getting better and working hard every day and applying myself and learning and helping others as well, which is what I’m doing at Dartmouth. Obviously, I want to be in Los Angeles. I plan on being there. But if I reach my short-term goals every day, I know I’ll be pushing myself in the right direction.
This article has been edited for clarity and length.
