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Wayne Phipps walks through the doorway, bows his head as is the custom in judo and steps onto the mat at Kodokan, the judo training venue for the Tokyo Paralympics.
This is his first session in almost a week due to travel and other pre-departure requirements and it’s a chance to blow the cobwebs out after arriving from Perth, via Sydney and Cairns, on Saturday.
On the mat Phipps and his training partner Calvin Knoester warm up and then get to business. It’s a short and sharp session to blow the cobwebs out in a relatively quiet training hall.
“It was good to get out there and have a good sweat. And Calvin’s such a good partner,” Phipps said.
Knoester is an Olympic hopeful and the son of Phipps’s coach Carlos Knoester. When Carlos couldn’t travel to the Paralympics, Calvin jumped at the chance.
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The relationship with the Knoesters goes all the way back to South Africa. Carlos lived in Johannesburg and competed against Phipps when they were in their late teens and early 20’s. Carlos moved his family to Australia and not long after Phipps did the same, relocating with his wife and kids after a period of working in the UK exposed them to what the rest of the world had to offer.
“We got back to South Africa and slowly but surely we realised we wanted to go somewhere else,” he said. “Nothing specific happened, but a number of things happened with my work and I thought it might not be the best place for my kids future.”
So they moved to Australia, settling in Perth. Phipps and Knoester senior reconnected when Phipps was looking for a local club in Perth and saw Knoester was coaching at the Kano Judo School. He signed up and integrated himself into the local judo community.
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While on a night-time run with his daughter in 2015 Phipps discovered his vision was impaired. A trip to the doctor confirmed the diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. This was quite a curveball. He was no longer able to drive his kids to their weekend sport and for months he removed himself from the judo community.
“I took six to eight months away from everything, I didn’t do judo or anything, I was just trying to figure life out,” he said.
It was a call from Knoester that reignited Phipps’ passion for judo and set him on the path to Paralympic qualification.
“We caught up for a barbecue and a couple of beers and he said ‘Well, they have visually impaired judo in the Paralympic program, why don’t you make some enquiries?’”
After discussions with Paralympics Phipps decided to seek qualification. He was classified and started competing in Para-judo.
Which in a long story short, leads us to today’s training session, his first in Tokyo – and what awaits Phipps on Friday when he takes to the mat at the home of martial arts in Japan, Nippon Budokan. He says success is getting here, but he wants more.
“For me, being here is a success story, but I don’t want to just leave it there. In the qualification process my main goal was that first fight, anything can happen after that.
“That very first fight I want to put everything into it, I want to be in the right mindset, the right condition, the right energy levels, the right ‘positive-ness’ in me for the very first fight, because if I can get through that very first fight, then anything can happen after that.”
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By: Paralympics Australia
Posted: 24 August 2021
