Taylor Nichols, Pickleball’s First Adaptive Triple Crown Winner, Looks Ahead To More Growth

By Bob Reinert
Red Line Editorial

In the first year that adaptive divisions were included in the Biofreeze USA Pickleball National Championships, Taylor Nichols won a Triple Crown by taking home three gold medals.

While proud of the individual achievement, the 32-year-old from Burleson, Texas, also saw something even bigger at play.

“It means the world to me, honestly, to do that,” Nichols said. “I think what is even better than that and what’s more satisfying than that is just seeing how much (adaptive pickleball) has grown this year.”

Nichols won the wheelchair coed singles, coed doubles and hybrid doubles (with a standing partner) 4.5 division titles at the national championships taking place this week in Mesa, Arizona. Nichols, who is paralyzed from the chest down following a spinal cord injury while competing in motocross at age 26, has spent almost seven years in intense rehabilitation to strengthen his core. He began playing pickleball less than two years ago.

“I’m a competitor,” said Nichols, who also plays for the USA Wheelchair Football League champion Dallas Cowboys, among other sports. “You never know what’s going to happen to you. You can do anything that you want to do. An athlete is an athlete. That’s kind of my motto. Anything’s possible with hard work and the right mindset.”

Nichols discovered pickleball while on a date at a Chicken N Pickle restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. It was like a light switch had been flipped, he said, and his connection to the sport was immediate.

“I didn’t know anything about pickleball then,” he said. “This sport really and truly could be for anyone. It doesn’t matter your limitations. It doesn’t matter if you’re a wheelchair user. It doesn’t matter your age, your gender, whatever.”

Key for adaptive pickleball’s appeal, Nichols said, is that it doesn’t necessitate contact, like some other wheelchair sports, and the intensity can be dialed up or down, depending on each player’s preference.

“With pickleball, you can make it as intense as you want it,” he said. “It’s just like any other sport. You’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to put in the time.”

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