It’s not just that Thomas Wandschneider on Saturday won the longest match of the Paralympics, 103 draining minutes, in the WH1 men’s singles.

Not just that he has lived in a car for the last six years to focus his life around training.

It’s that he’s 60, a father of four and a grandfather of two – the oldest Para badminton player in the Paralympics – and he beat a player younger than his sons.

And having beaten China’s Yang Tong in a marathon, 24-22 12-21 21-16, the German veteran topped Group C to make the semifinals. One more win, and a dream Paralympic medal will be his.

The dream is close, but it has taken him years to arrive at this place. He has been on the circuit for 20 years now, winning a total of five World Championships gold medals, the last in 2022 when he won his fourth men’s doubles title. He talks of his life over the last six years – he leaves home on Sunday, arrives at his training base in Hanover, and trains through the week, while spending nights in his car, which is fitted with a bunk and toilet. He returns home only on Friday.

“I have no time for my family, I have time only for training,” he says. “I live in my car, 80 per cent of my life I live in the car, but I have a goal. I want a medal at the Paralympics, and now it’s possible. I hope I can.”

Yet, it is this dedication that led his doctor to assess that while he was 60, his heart was only 40. It’s what helped him outlast Yang in the longest match of the Paralympics.

“I’m very strong, but this is my focus,” Wandschneider says. “For more than 20 years, I’ve been working on my physical training, 100 per cent and more. My fitness is getting better and better – I had a test five weeks ago, and the doctor said you have a heart like people 40 years old. It’s crazy.”

→Results