Mick
Ozanne

Mick Ozanne was a football star in the making when an accident while partying at 19 saw his life take a very different – albeit similar in one crucial way, as he would later discover – turn.

After diving head-first into a shallow canal, Mick lay face down in the water unable to move or breathe. His mates rushed to his aid and rolled him onto his back, holding him afloat until an ambulance arrived. But the damage was done – Mick, having injured his C6 vertebrae, was a quadriplegic.

Devastated, he lost all hope of becoming a professional athlete. But fast-forward to 2020, and Mick is on the verge of making his Paralympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Mick, who first represented Australia in 2013, has notched an impressive 100-41 win-loss record with the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers. This includes an unbeaten run to the gold medal match of the 2014 International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) Wheelchair Rugby World Championship in Odense, Denmark, where the Steelers won their first-ever world crown – and Mick’s defence earned him the recognition of Head Coach and two-time Paralympian Brad Dubberley.

After missing selection to the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team, Mick next donned the green and gold at a major tournament at the 2018 IWRF Wheelchair Rugby World Championship in Sydney, NSW. Despite another unbeaten run to the gold medal match, Japan proved too strong, with the Steelers making an uncharacteristic and decisive error with 90 seconds to play to bring an end to their six-year reign at major tournaments.

With this defeat – and the disappointment of missing the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games – Mick has never been more determined to represent Australia at the Paralympic Games. Hitting the court in Tokyo would be the culmination of a decade of hard work, and one of only a handful of goals in wheelchair rugby that he is yet to tick off.