He beat disability through sports
He was born in 1963 in Athens and he has worked as a seaman until 1989 that halted an accident resulting in permanent disability (amputation and paraplegia). Kostas Vazouras was an boxing athlete from 1984 to 1989, ranking in the first position of the Armed Forces World Championship (A.S.A.E.D.)
After his accident, he continued actively in sports for physically disabled. His motive to pursue a completely different way of life was and remains the fighting spirit to prove to himself and then to the society that disability is no barrier to the dreams and goals. He started from 1990 to 1994 to play wheelchair basketball. During this period he participated in four national championships and in 1995 he participated in European All Stars Team. After meeting with Jenny Rapti- his wife now, who is a paraplegic athlete of wheelchair dancing, he decided to participate himself in the sport.
In 1999, along with the dance he began to deal with the wheelchair tennis. He participated in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2000 in Croatia, and since then he has been dedicated to tennis until today. Tennis go him because it is a sport that can equally be played with your opponent (with a disability or not). The only difference between the tennis and the wheelchair tennis is that the ball for athletes with disabilities has a second bounce.
In 2004 he participated in eight tournaments and in the 2004 Paraolympic Games in Athens being the only Greek player in tennis, he won the 33rd position among 64 athletes. The result of these efforts was to have a second disabled athlete in tennis.