John McFall, from the United Kingdom, is a member of the ESA Astronaut Class of 2022. John McFall is one of the more than 22 500 candidates who submitted a valid application in 2021 in response to ESA’s call for new astronauts for missions to the International Space Station and beyond. ESA’s new class of astronauts includes career astronauts, members for the astronaut reserve and astronauts with a physical disability for a feasibility project. They will start a 12-month basic training at ESA’s European Astronaut Centre in spring 2023.
Credit: P. Sebirot/ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA), a cooperative space program among the nations of Europe, made history in November 2022, naming the world’s first physically disabled astronaut. Paralympian and orthopedic surgeon John McFall joined 15 others out of 22,500 applicants in the journey to space. McFall had his right leg amputated after a motorcycle accident when he was 19 years old. Before his accident, he was a runner. McFall persevered through recovery and made it to the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. He secured the bronze medal in the 100-meter race.

McFall was born on April 25, 1981, in Frimley, England. He was a runner before his accident in 2000. Determined to reach his goals despite his new existence as an amputee, McFall worked through recovery all the way to the Paralympics. He became a professional runner in 2005, only five years after his accident. After his success as a Paralympian, McFall trained as an orthopedic surgeon.

He studied at Swansea University in Wales 2004. He continued his education to earn his master’s degree at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff in 2005. Not one to shy away from challenges and education, McFall graduated from Cardiff University School of Medicine in 2014. He joined the Royal College of Surgeons in 2016 and works as a trauma and orthopedic specialist in the south of England.

McFall heard that the ESA was looking to hire a Paralympian as an astronaut in February 2021 as he worked in the intensive therapy unit helping patients recover from COVID-19. He started filling out an application and soon was undergoing memory and physical tests and answering difficult questions in interviews.

The ESA named McFall and 15 others as official recruits in November 2022. The group will undergo more testing to ensure their ability to fulfill the role. McFall will take part in the Parastronaut Feasibility Project which will help the ESA understand how space flight works for astronauts with physical disabilities.

Australian tennis player Dylan Alcott competes at the 2022 Australian Open.
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July is Disability Pride Month. Behind the Headlines will feature people claiming their disability and excelling. Claiming disability means actively accepting their condition and integrating it into their identity.

Alcott has made a lot of racket in his career! Serving up matches and breaking records, Dylan Alcott became the first man to win the Golden Slam—all four major title tournaments and the Paralympic Games—in 2021. Alcott is a retired Australian wheelchair tennis player. He also played wheelchair basketball with the Australian Rollers national team. In 2022, Australia named Alcott Australian of the Year and an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Dylan Martin Alcott was born Dec. 4, 1990, in Melbourne. At birth, Alcott had a tumor wrapped around his spinal cord. Surgeons successfully removed the tumor. However, the surgery left him paraplegic—that is, paralyzed in the legs and lower body. He began playing wheelchair tennis in school, competing globally by the age of 16. Alcott started playing wheelchair basketball when he was 14 years old. He played with the Rollers in the 2006 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. At the age of 17, Alcott won a gold medal at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China, with the Rollers.

In 2009, Alcott began studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the United States. He led the school’s wheelchair basketball team to win the college championship. After his first year, he returned to Australia to prepare for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, England. Alcott and the Rollers won the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship for the first time in 2010 in Birmingham, England. In 2012, they won silver at the Paralympics.

Australian tennis star Dylan Alcott competes in the men’s quads wheelchair singles at the Wimbledon Championships.
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In 2012, Alcott suffered serious injuries to his hand and arm when someone tried to move him in his wheelchair. The injury made Alcott eligible to participate in the quad class of wheelchair tennis and spurred his return to that sport. The quad class is reserved for players that also have some impairment in their playing arm. In 2014, he won the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship and the New Zealand Open. In 2015, Alcott won the quad wheelchair Australian Open title. Alcott was ranked number one in the world in 2015 after securing eight titles.

At the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Alcott won the men’s quad doubles gold medal with the Australian wheelchair tennis player Heath Davidson. The next day, he won the men’s quad singles gold medal. Alcott was named Australian Paralympian of the Year for his success at the games. In 2018, Alcott won the Wheelchair Tennis Masters title.

In 2021, Alcott became the third professional and the first man to complete the Golden Slam in a calendar year. He won the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, the United States Open, and the singles gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (The games, originally scheduled for 2020, were postponed to 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.) At the end of 2021, Alcott announced that the 2022 Australian Open would be his last professional competition. Alcott’s memoir Able: Gold Medals, Grand Slams and Smashing Glass Ceilings was published in 2018.