SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Tennis wraps at the Paralympics day in Paris, and one group of athletes was not given the chance to compete at all this year. There were no power wheelchairs on the tennis courts at these games. Reporter Emily Chen-Newton has the story.
EMILY CHEN-NEWTON, BYLINE: A few years ago, wheelchair tennis Paralympian Nicholas Taylor received an email saying he would no longer be able to compete at the Paralympics using his motorized wheelchair.
NICHOLAS TAYLOR: It was one of the hardest things I've ever read because it meant that my Paralympic career was going to be over. But much bigger, it meant that no one else in a power chair was ever going to get to even have a chance to compete.
CHEN-NEWTON: Angelina Fosbinder is one of those athletes. She uses a power chair because she lacks the range of motion and/or strength in her arms and hands to push a chair. But she can still swing a racket, which she tapes to her hand and uses a joystick to maneuver her bulky power chair around the court.
ANGELINA FOSBINDER: It's just like driving a toy car. It really is.
CHEN-NEWTON: Using the joystick with her one free hand, she aims herself towards an incoming ball.
FOSBINDER: But before it reaches me, I have to take my hand off of the joystick, stop the chair, rotate my whole body to the right, hit the ball, then get my hand back on the joystick and move around to, you know, the next ball.
CHEN-NEWTON: Athletes were never given an official reason for the change. The International Paralympic Committee told NPR the discussions between the IPC and federations are confidential. The International Tennis Federation still allows power chairs in all of its other competitions. David Wagner, who uses a manual chair, doesn't understand why some tennis players don't have the chance to compete at the Paralympics like him.
DAVID WAGNER: I would be 100% on board to have players like Nick in.
CHEN-NEWTON: Wagner is Nicholas Taylor's longtime doubles partner. He says power chairs don't give an advantage. They just allow those who need them to play.
WAGNER: It's what the sport is for. It's showing what people with a disability can do.
CHEN-NEWTON: But with this ruling, Fosbinder has moved to another sport to show what she can do. She's a swimmer now because, she says, her tennis dreams were ripped away from her.
FOSBINDER: And it's also ripped away from other people who are as disabled as me, if not more.
CHEN-NEWTON: With all the challenges that she already faces in her everyday life, she calls this an injustice.
For NPR News, I'm Emily Chen-Newton. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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