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Australia's 2016 Paralympic Team: Facts and stats

Roar Rookie
3rd September, 2016
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Roar Rookie
3rd September, 2016
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Australian Paralympic Team will be competing at the Rio Paralympics from 7 to 18 September. The Games go over 11 days and there are 528 medal events in 22 sports.

I recently wrote about the Australian Paralympic Team being the ‘most loved’.

The ‘most-loved’ team has a goal of finishing in the top five in the medal tally – a similar goal to the Australian Olympic Team. Australia is one of twelve nations that have attended every Summer Paralympics. Kate McLoughlin is the Chef de Mission and the first woman to lead the Australian Paralympic Games Team. Wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley and Daniela Di Toro are team captains.

Team in numbers
177 athletes, with 103 men and 74 women. This is the second largest away team after the 1988 Seoul team that comprised 179 athletes. The largest teams are athletics – 46 athletes, swimming – 36 athletes and cycling – 15 athletes. There will be 89 (50%) athletes making their Paralympics debut including 21 in athletics and 22 in swimming.

Australia will be represented in 16 out 22 sports – archery, athletics, boccia, cycling, equestrian, goalball, paracanoe, paratriathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair tennis.

It will not be represented in six sports – judo, powerlifting, 5-a-side football, 7-a-side football, sitting volleyball and wheelchair fencing. Sadly the ‘Gliders’, women’s wheelchair basketball team did not qualify.

Paracanoe and paratriathlon make their Games debut. Australian athletes in boccia and archery return to the Games after being absent since Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 respectively. This is the last Games for sailing as it is not included in 2020 Tokyo program.

There are two well known indigenous athletes – runner Torita Isaac and cyclist Amanda Reid. Table tennis player Melissa Tapper’s selection for Rio Olympics meant that she created history in becoming the first Australian Paralympian to compete at both Olympics and Paralympics in the same year.

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Age factor
Average age of the team is 29.2 years – for the men 29.1 and for the women 29.4. This is higher than Olympic team which was 26 years. Paralympic athletes often have a longer commitment to sport.

The youngest athlete is track and field athlete Tamsin Colley who will be 13 years and 362 days on the day of the Opening Ceremony.

There are also a number of young athletes and these include: Tiffany Thomas Kane (14), Isis Holt (15), Liam Bekric (15), Katja Dekind (15) , Paige Leonhardt (15) and Timothy Hodge (15). Shooter Libby Kosmala will be Australia’s oldest competitor at 74 years and 61 days old when the Games open. Libby will be the oldest athlete from any nation competing in Rio.

Longevity
The longevity is a trait of many Paralympic athletes and the Rio Paralympics highlights this in the list below.

12th Games – Libby Kosmala (archery, athletics, fencing, swimming, shooting)
8th Games – Russell Short (athletics), Kieran Modra (athletics, swimming, cycling)
7th Games – Lisel Tesch (wheelchair basketball andamp; sailing)
6th Games – Christie Dawes (athletics)
5th Games – Kurt Fearnley (athletics), Angie Ballard (athletics), Brad Ness (wheelchair basketball), Nazim Ederm (wheelchair rugby)
4th Games – Matthew Levy (swimming), Rick Pendleton (swimming), Prue Watt (swimming), Tristan Knowles (wheelchair basketball), Shaun Norris (wheelchair basketball), Ryan Scott (wheelchair rugby) and Colin Harrison (sailing)

Multi-sport athletes
To represent Australia at the early Paralympics, many athletes were selected on their ability to compete in several sports at a Games. Since the late 1980s, athletes now only compete in a single sport at a Games.

At the Rio Paralympics, there will be eight Australian athletes that have competed in several sports over time at the Paralympics. These athletes include:
Libby Kosmala – previously archery, athletics, fencing, swimming; shooting in Rio
Kieran Modra – previously athletics and swimming; cycling in Rio
Lisel Tesch – previously wheelchair basketball; sailing in Rio
Dylan Alcott – previously wheelchair basketball; wheelchair tennis in Rio
Jessica Gallagher – previously athletics, alpine skiing; cycling in Rio
Daniela Di Toro – previously wheelchair tennis table tennis in Rio
Claire McLean – previously cycling; paratriathlon in Rio
Amanda Reid – previously swimming; cycling in Rio

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Previous gold medallists
Australian Team will be represented by a number of gold medallists from previous Games. These gold medallists include:
Athletics – Richard Colman, Todd Hodgetts, Kurt Fearnley, Russell Short, Evan O’Hanlon
Cycling – Kieran Modra, Michael Gallagher, David Nicholas, Carol Cooke, Susan Powell
Sailing – Liesl Tesch, Daniel Fitzgibbon
Shooting – Libby Kosmala
Swimming – Michael Anderson, Blake Cochrane, Matthew Haanapel, Brenden Hall, Matthew Levy, Rick Pendleton, Ellie Cole, Maddison Elliott, Prue Watt
Wheelchair basketball – Tristan Knowles, Brad Ness, Shaun Norris, Tige Simmons, Brad Stibners
Wheelchair rugby – Ryley Batt, Chris Bond, Cameron Carr, Nazim Erdem, Jose Hose, Andrew Harrison, Jason Lees , Ryan Scott
Wheelchair tennis – Dylan Alcott (in wheelchair basketball)

Australia is set to have a successful Rio Paralympics. It has a good blend of experience and youth and many athletes that have previously won Paralympic and world championship medals. Just as in the Olympics, competition for medals in increasing at every Games.

The leading nations are likely to be China, Great Britain, Ukraine, United States, Brazil and Germany. Russia finished second on the medal tally at the 2012 London Games and it will be interesting to see what will be the impact of their suspension.

As with the Olympics, I hope that our athletes bring back lots of medals as reward for the last four years of training.

However, more importantly I hope the athletes have an experience of a lifetime and perform at their best. Rio Paralympics will be a great showcase of ‘ability over disability’.

Postscript: the original team of 178 has been reduced by one due to Michael Gallagher’s removal from the team due to a positive doping sample.

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