After Australia’s best-ever Olympic performance, with 18 gold medals, attention now turns to the Paralympics starting on Wednesday in Paris. Of Australia’s team of 160 athletes, competing across 17 of 22 sports, here are 10 to watch.
Shae Graham (wheelchair rugby, 2.5pt, second Paralympics)
Since 2008, Australia’s wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, have been a powerhouse, with consecutive Paralympic gold medals in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. But in Tokyo, a semi-final defeat to the United States and an agonising bronze medal loss to hosts Japan ended their winning run. In Paris, Melbourne librarian Shae Graham is leading the Steelers’ quest for redemption. The 37-year-old was the first woman to represent Australia in wheelchair rugby in 2019 and will be joined at these Games by two more, Emilie Miller and Ella Sabljak. The Steelers rebounded from Tokyo with a world title in 2022 and will be the team to beat at the 2024 Games.
Alexa Leary (para-swimming, S9, Paralympic debut)
Alexa Leary had the Brisbane aquatic centre crowd in tears when she qualified for her debut Paralympics. Previously a promising triathlete, the 23-year-old was cycling in mid-2021 when she clipped the wheel ahead of herand crashed, sustaining major trauma to her skull, broken bones, a punctured lung and shattered leg. In the 100-plus days she spent in intensive care, Leary’s family were told to say goodbye on eight occasions. Remarkably, Leary pulled through – and soon became an elite swimmer, winning 100m freestyle gold at the World Para Swimming Championships last year. In Brisbane, after watching her daughter qualify, mother Belinda was speechless: “She wasn’t meant to live...” Expect more tears in Paris.
Alistair Donohoe (para-cycling, C5, third Paralympics)
Cyclist Alistair Donohoe has won four Paralympics medals – two silver in Rio, silver and bronze in Tokyo. In Paris, the five-time track world champion and four-time road world champion will be aiming for that elusive Paralympic gold medal. Donohoe is also an ambassador for Movember and his Instagram account of “mostly dog content” lists himas “Alistairwaytoheaven” .
Jaryd Clifford (para-athletics, T13, third Paralympics)
Jaryd Clifford went to his first Paralympics in 2016 aged 17 and won his first world championship medal just a year later. Having won two world titles in 2019, in the 1500m and 5000m events, Clifford was a firm favourite in Tokyo. But a Paralympic crown eluded the vision-impaired runner as he came home with two silver and a bronze instead. Clifford wrote about the difficult emotional journey following the Games: “I’ve felt pretty broken, definitely lost, and always searching for the moment that helps me turn the page.” Clifford, now 25, recently posted on Instagram a clip of his performance in Tokyo captioned: “It’s time to write a new page in this Paralympic story.”
Telaya Blacksmith (para-athletics, T20, Paralympic debut)
In Paris, 16-year-old Warlpiri woman Telaya Blacksmith will become Australia’s 16th known Indigenous Paralympian, 64 years after Kevin Coombs became Australia’s first at the inaugural Paralympic Games in Rome. Blacksmith– who holds several age records in the 100m, 200m and long jump – is one of four Indigenous members of the Australian teamand grew up in the small Northern Territory community of Lajamanu, seven hours from Katherine, before relocating to Sydney to pursue her track and field ambitions.Blacksmith grew up idolising Cathy Freeman and will compete in her idol’s pet event in Paris: the 400m.
Madison de Rozario (para-athletics, T53, fifth Paralympics)
Madison de Rozario is already a Paralympic veteran, having made her Games debut aged just 15 in Beijing, where she won a silver medal as part of the 4x100m T53/54 relay. Now 30, the West Australian added two more silver medals to her haul in Rio, before a dominant Tokyo Paralympics saw de Rozario win a thrilling marathon and the 800m race, plus bronze in the 1500m. De Rozario will be one of Australia’s flag-bearers in Paris.
Alex Saffy (para-swimming, S10, SM10, Paralympic debut)
If Alex Saffy had been permitted to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics, he would likely already have a Games gold medal to his name. The 18-year-old from Western Australiaunofficially broke the 200m butterfly S9 world record in 2021, at just 15. But, under the official international classification system, Saffy was not classified, meaning he was unable to compete in Tokyo. The “Bunbury Bullet” has made up for lost time since, winning medals at consecutive world championships and the Commonwealth Games. It is expected Saffy will compete in the 100m freestyle and butterfly and 200m individual medley in Paris.
Melissa Tapper (para-table tennis, TT10, fourth Paralympics)
Paris will be Melissa Tapper’s third Olympics and her fourth Paralympics. The table tennis titan made history in Rio as the first Australian to compete in both Games. Tapper, 34, won silver in the Team Class 9-10 discipline at the Tokyo Paralympics and will be hoping to go one better at the South Paris Arenain a 12-strong table tennis squad which is Australia’s largest since 1968.
Daniel Michel (boccia, BC3, third Paralympics)
Australia has never won Paralympic gold in boccia, but 29-year-old Daniel Michel is a favourite in both BC3 individual and BC3 mixed pairs (with partner Jamieson Leeson). Michel is world No 1 in both disciplines, after winning dual golds at the 2022 world championships in Brazil. The pair will be joined in Paris by ramp operators Ash Maddern and Jasmine Haydon, the former having won bronze – Australia’s first Paralympic medal in boccia in 25 years – alongside Michel in Tokyo.
Brenden Hall (para-swimming, S9, fifth Paralympics)
Para-swimming veteran Brendan Hall is one of five Australians competing in their fifth Paralympics (five more are in their sixth Games, one in their seventh, while tennis player Danni Di Toro is contesting her eighth). Hall, 31, was the youngest member of the team in Beijingand, four years on in London, won two gold medals and one bronze. The medal rush continued in Rio – gold, silver and bronze – before faltering in Tokyo, where Hall’s best result was fourth in the men’s S9 400m freestyle. Hall is “over the bloody moon” to be one of Australia’s flag-bearers, alongside Madison de Rozario, for the opening ceremony along Paris’s Champs-Elysées on Wednesday local time.
