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The three athletes who claimed the four gold medals won by Australia’s athletics team at the Tokyo Paralympics – sprinter James Turner, wheelchair track-road competitor Madison de Rozario, and long jumper Vanessa Low – are back in Paris to defend their titles.
The 34-member team comprising 32 competitors and two sighted guides, have had various preparations leading into Paris, with competition starting on Friday August 30 at Stade de France – the country’s largest sports stadium.
There have been training camps in St Moritz in Switzerland, at Montpellier west of Marseille in southern France, and some athletes continued their preparation in Australia before flying to Europe.
Australia won 19 medals in Tokyo in 2021 and 14 medals at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships held in the Paralympic host city, Paris.
Assistant team manager-coach Steve Caddy said a haul of a similar double-digit number was anticipated for the 2024 Paralympics.
“You look at the last couple of Paralympics and we had three gold medals in Rio and four in Tokyo,” Caddy said.
“Four golds again is very achievable but it’s not the benchmark – we want more, and we think there’s more in there with a team we feel can win five or six golds on the day if everything goes right.
“We saw it with our Olympic track and field team that they performed on the day, when it mattered, and they got the results,” he said.
“We’ve had very similar preparations through staging camps, so there’s no reason why our Paralympians can’t do what our Olympians did. It’s a great opportunity for us.”
There were several retirements after Tokyo including Paralympic gold medallists in sprinters Evan O’Hanlon and Scott Reardon, but the regeneration process is in full swing with 11 debutants in Paris.
“There’s great excitement among the senior campaigners and the juniors, or debutants, starting their journey,” Caddy said.
“While we’ve got 11 debutants at a Paralympics we’ve only got one (Telaya Blacksmith) on their first Athletics Australia team because the other 10 have already been to one or two World Championships and they’ve already shown their level of performance.
“Mali Lovell is a good example with a silver (200m) and bronze (200m) at the 2023 (Paris) and 2024 (Kobe) worlds.
“Another being exposed to this level is Dayna Crees who was fourth (javelin) at the 2023 worlds in Paris and Ella Hose who was fourth in the shot put there, while young middle-distance runner in Angus Hincksman took bronze in Paris last year.
“So, we’ve got quite a strong cohort of young athletes coming through, who get to mix with some great leaders in Angie Ballard at her seventh Paralympics, Madi de Rozario at her fifth, Vanessa Low at her fourth Games, along with other seasoned runners and proven performers in Michael Roeger and Jaryd Clifford.”
Catch all the updates and highlights of our Australian Para-athletics team on Nine and 9Now from Friday.
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport from August 28 to September 8.
By: Margie McDonald, Paralympics Australia
Published: 27 August 2024
