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Dylan Littlehales knows podium success and the feeling of coming agonisingly close but just missing the mark.
The Para-canoe star is using his Tokyo 2020 Paralympics campaign as motivation to push for Paris 2024 glory.
In the highly competitive Men’s KL3 200m event Littlehales secured fourth place. His time of 40.234 seconds in the semi-finals would have awarded him the gold medal had it been replicated in the final, highlighting his immense potential and talent.
At a star of the 2023 Para-canoe season Littlehales and his team met to set goals for the year ahead, including the world championship that had eluded him.
“Through eight years’ worth of world championships I’ve remembered that you can’t get too ahead of yourself you can’t start thinking about the podium before you’ve actually run the race,” he said in the latest edition of the NSW Institute of Sport’s ‘Lights Up’ series.
In August 2023, Littlehales clinched the title he wanted at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Para-canoe World Championships in Duisburg, Germany.
“I won by point one of a second. That’s nothing,” he said.
“Something that I’ve learned over the last two Games is that everyone gains half a second in a Paralympic year because everybody pushes for that extra little bit.”
Littlehales said the win set him up for the 2024 season.
“I’d say I’m the favourite, without getting too ahead of myself, winning the world championships and the test event at Paris weeks later, winning the last two gold medals at international events.
“But it’s really a mixed field at the moment because I think the top five are within half a second of me.”
It hasn’t been an easy road for the two-time Paralympian, who transitioned to water sports at 14 years old.
Born with congenital fibula hemimelia, a rare limb deficiency in his right leg, he underwent 20 major surgeries.
“(It’s) a very rare condition, I think it affects one in 20 million people and most of those are very mild versions as well,” he said.
“I had mum or dad beside me every night in the hospital, there wasn’t a night I had to sleep alone.
“They didn’t raise a quitter, mum and dad, so just being able to push through anything that’s physically possible, that’s really what they’ve instilled.”
Littlehales said playing sport had helped him develop.
“Through all the sport that I’ve done, it’s allowed me to progress the muscles and live a better life that I would have,” he said.
“A big part of my childhood was showing that disability didn’t define me and that I could pursue anything that I want to.”
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be held from August 28 to September 8, bringing together 4,400 of the world’s most outstanding Paralympic athletes.
By: Natalie McGarry, Paralympics Australia
Published: 14 March 2024
