Jayden
Warn

Although 24-year-old Jayden Warn was the youngest member of the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, he was able to keep his inexperience under wraps, scoring 11 goals in just 23 minutes of court-time.

Jayden’s first introduction to wheelchair rugby came five years earlier, after he shattered six vertebrae in a car accident on the day before his 17th birthday. Eager to follow in the footsteps of the Victorians he would watch train, it did not take Jayden long to establish himself as a future star of the sport, making his international debut at the 2013 New Zealand National Championships in Christchurch.

The following year, in a moment which ranks among the highlights of his still young career, Jayden became a World Championships gold medallist – a first not only for Jayden, but also for the Steelers. Competing alongside and against the world’s best at the 2014 International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Odense, Denmark, Jayden was the only Australian rookie to be given court-time in the gold medal game against Canada, and proved his value when he scored three crucial goals in the final quarter.

In 2016, Jayden etched his name in history for the second time in as many years. Defeating their perennial rivals, the USA, 59-58 in a double-overtime thriller in Rio, the Steelers became the first team in wheelchair rugby history to win consecutive Paralympic gold medals and a world title in a four-year period. Jayden is now internationally recognised among the best 3.0 players in the world.

Jayden was selected for his second Paralympic campaign at Tokyo 2020, with the Steelers vying for their third consecutive gold medal. Unfortunately,  the team was only able to train together twice in the eighteen-month leadup to Tokyo due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, which severely disrupted their preparation for the Games. At the Games, the Steelers’ nine-year reign as Paralympic champions came to an end when the team finished fourth after being defeated by Japan 52–60 in the bronze medal game. It was the first time in 17 years that the team didn’t win a medal.