Paris 2024 Paralympics to be ‘spectacular’.

Key points: 

• Excitement builds for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games from 28 August to 8 September, featuring 4400 athletes in 549 events across 22 Para-sports.
• Australian athletes, lead by co-captains Angie Ballard and Curtis McGrath, will compete in various sports such as swimming, badminton, and athletics.
• Standout Australians include Paige Greco in Para-cycling, Chris Bond in wheelchair rugby, Ruby Storm and Alexa Leary in Para-swimming, and Taymon Kenton-Smith in Para-archery.

The excitement is building for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games to be held from 28 August to 8 September. A total of 4400 athletes from around the world will compete in 549 medal events in 22 team and individual Para-sports.

Australian team members will be competing in a huge range of events including swimming, badminton, boccia, equestrian and athletics.

Six-time Paralympic athletics representative Angie Ballard and triple Paralympic canoeing gold medallist Curtis McGrath are the Australian Paralympic Team co-captains for the Paris games.

International Paralympic Committee President, Andrew Parsons, said: “these Games are going to be the most spectacular Paralympic Games ever.”

Here are five of our incredible athletes representing Australia in the green and gold.

Paige Greco – Para-cycling.

A lot has happened since Paige’s exhilarating gold medal win on the opening day of the Tokyo Paralympics 2020.

Early last year, at the Para-cycling World Cup in Italy, Greco crashed at 45 km/h and sustained severe injuries, including a broken nose, concussion and multiple wounds.

“I’ve had a lot of successes in my cycling career but this was mentally and physically a really big barrier to get through,” Paige said.

Following intense rehab, and considering leaving cycling, Paige has made a full recovery. Now she is preparing to defend her Tokyo Games success at the Paris Paralympics.

“The Paralympics is the top goal. Just being there in Paris, that’s what really drives me.”

Chris Bond – Wheelchair Rugby.

It’s no coincidence that over the 13 years Chris Bond has been an Australian Steeler, the national wheelchair rugby team has scaled the sport’s greatest heights.

Bond has described himself as strong, purposeful and genuine. His teammates and opponents might add that he’s talented, driven and fiercely competitive.

“There’s always immense pressure,” Bond said, looking towards Paris 2024, his stated swansong in green and gold.

“We’re high performance athletes and high performance sport is cut-throat. We’ve got a goal in mind and that’s to win a gold medal.”

Guiding Australia to its third Paralympic success in four Games would be a fitting way for the 37-year-old father of two to finish his playing career.

Ruby Storm – Para-swimming.

Ruby is a proud Wiradjuri woman and rising star of international Para-swimming.

At 20 she’s already a highly successful member of the 4x100m Freestyle Relay S14 squad, with five medals in Paralympic and World Championship competition, including silver at Tokyo 2020.

Achieving great things at Paris 2024 is the goal, but Ruby’s approach is to keep focus on the joy she gets from swimming, competing and being part of the Australian Dolphins.

“I feel like when I’m under pressure I don’t swim as great, so I just focus on being happy and that’s when the really good swimming happens.”

Taymon Kenton-Smith – Para-archery.

What colour Taymon Kenton-Smith chooses to dye his hair for the Paris Paralympics is anyone’s guess.

More certain is his dedication to his craft. Born with a partial left hand, he often cites the mantra ‘half the hand, twice the effort’.

He’s shot as a bowhunter, traditional archer and even in historical re-enactments. But it is the lure of Paralympic competition that has brought out his best.

At 14 he promised his beloved grandmother that she’d see him get to the Paralympic Games.

“She passed away just before Tokyo but she saw that I qualified. That promise was what drove me to the Games,” Taymon explains.

Alexa Leary – Para-swimming.

A former triathlete, Alexa nearly died after a catastrophic bike accident in 2021 that left her in the hospital for 110 days and part of her skull had to be removed as part of a lifesaving surgery.

“It’s unbelievable. To think that we had six months in hospital, never meant to walk or talk again, and she’s off to the Paralympics.” Leary’s father, Russ, explained.

The 22-year-old swimmer from the Gold Coast won the 50m freestyle race in the Australian swimming trials last week and met the qualifying time for the Paralympic Games in the S9 classification.

“I’m so proud of myself, I’ll really tell you that. I’m so proud of myself,” Leary said in her post-race interview.

Cheer them on.

We didn’t have space to tell everyone’s story here, even though they all deserve it. If you’d like to learn more about the Australian Paralympic team and their journeys that have led them to Paris 2024, check it out here.

Want to join the official cheer squad or find out more about Paralympic sports? Follow these links:

https://www.paralympic.org.au/aussquad/

https://www.paralympic.org/paris-2024