Sam Schröder, born on the 25th of September 1999, is a professional wheelchair tennis player. He’s known for his resilience, humility, and positive attitude.
Sam was born with the split-hand/split-foot syndrome, which means that he solely possesses one finger on each hand, while also missing the metatarsus on both feet, resulting in him being wheelchair bound. To optimize his mobility and functionality, Sam has undergone more than 30 surgeries between his first and 16th years of life.
At eleven, Sam first tried his hand at wheelchair tennis. What initially started as a weekly group session, quickly turned into full time lessons with his former coach Joop Broens.
In 2013 Sam got noticed by the KNLTB and since then he has been part of the national selection. Since 2015, Sam also participates at an international level for the Quad-ranking.
““Quad players have a significant impairment in at least three limbs”
In September of 2017, Sam started his final year of high school while simultaneously playing tournaments and training part time. At that point in time, Sam ranked number 1 in the world in the Junior selection and number 6 at a Senior level. Clearly, everything was going according to plan, until:
“In October of 2017, I got diagnosed with colon cancer. I went through a couple of weeks of intense screening, with multiple doctors working on a treatment plan for me. It was pretty clear from the beginning that it would be a long and cumbersome journey, but I never once doubted a positive outcome.”
Regardless of his disease, in December of 2018, Sam got nominated for Disabled Sport Person of the Year by the province of Limburg. Although Sam didn’t win, it was clear from the audience’s reaction that he should have been the winner.
Ondanks zijn ziekte was Sam in december 2018 genomineerd voor sporter met een beperking van het jaar door de provincie Limburg. Hoewel Sam dat jaar niet won was duidelijk uit de reactie van het publiek dat Sam de morele winnaar was.
“After my chemo treatment, I had to wait ten weeks for a follow up scan. At the end of February I got the go ahead for my operation where they’d remove my entire large intestine and equip me with an ileostomy. Before the operation, I had to carefully decide on its placement so as to make sure it would not interfere with my tennis. While the operation was tough, it only took me four weeks to be back on court, even for just 15 minutes.”
In the meantime, Sam has been cancer free for six years. He has shown resilience not only in his battle against cancer, but also on the tennis courts where he not only won the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open multiple times, he has also won multiple gold and silver medals at the Paralympics of Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024).
