Natalie Narkprasert: From Learning to Walk Again to the Asian Games

Before Natalie Narkprasert could return to a padel court, she had to learn to walk again. Her opening win at the Asian Games in Nagoya came after knee surgery and a year lost to a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus.

“I had to learn to walk again,” the Thai player said after the match. She recalled being told she would not play sport again, and deciding to prove that prediction wrong.

Narkprasert had been playing padel for around two and a half to three years, with the injury interrupting that time. The route to an international court had included a much more basic task: getting back on her feet.

A win that meant more than progress

Alongside Dares Srirungreang, she beat Kuwait 7–5, 6–3 to reach the women’s last 16. The result put a first Asian Games victory beside a recovery story that no scoreline could fully explain.

The Thai pair’s next match ended in defeat to Saudi Arabia after three sets and a deciding tie-break. Their campaign stopped there.

Narkprasert nevertheless left Nagoya having returned to competition and won on the Asian Games stage. For a player who had once been learning to walk again, that was a substantial distance to travel.