Meet QLD’s 2024 Paralympic athletes: How to watch in Australia
The 2024 Paralympics gets underway in Paris tonight and we’ve compiled an ultimate guide of who are Queensland’s top gold medal hopes and when to catch them on TV.
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Unbelievably inspiring and strong, a number of Queensland athletes will shine in Paris at the 2024 Paralympic Games and here is your complete guide to catch them live.
The Opening Ceremony for the Paris 2024 Paralympics began at 4am this morning with our Paralympians to compete tonight until the games conclude on September 9.
The Aussie team will looking to better their 80 medal haul at the Tokyo Games and perhaps their best ever haul of 149 medals at the Sydney 2000 games.
Scroll below to meet Queensland’s superstar Paralympians, when to watch them and more information about the Paralympics.
MEET THE TEAM
158 para-athletes will make up Australia’s 2024 Paralympics team in Paris and they will compete across 17 sports.
The sports range from para track cycling events, para swimming disciplines, para athletic events, wheelchair rugby and basketball, para table tennis and more.
The 2024 games will see 61 para-athletes make their debut for Australia.
Historically, para athletics and para swimming have been the most successful sports for Australia at the Paralympics, accounting for 486 and 453 medals, respectively.
Our best gold medal hopes on the para athletics track rest with the likes of James Turner (400m T36), Vanessa Low (long jump T63) and Madison de Rozario (800m T53 and marathon T54).
That trio all won gold in Tokyo.
De Rozario is a six-time medallist.
In the pool, three-time Paralympic Games gold medallists Brenden Hall and Lakeisha Patterson are huge chances for gold.
Rowan Crothers (50m freestyle S10 and 4x100m freestyle relay - 34 points), Benjamin Hance (100m backstroke S14) and Rachael Watson (50m freestyle S4) will be among those who will be defending their titles in Paris.
Our wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games and are looking to improve on a fourth placed finish in Tokyo.
The Steelers are the 2022 World Championship winners.
WHAT TO WATCH AND WHEN
There’ll be a multitude of Queensland para-athletes to cheer for at the 2024 Games, some of whom are huge medal chances.
Scroll below to see when you can catch Queensland’s top medal hopefuls in action live on Channel Nine and the Nine Now app.
August 29, Thursday
Wheelchair Rugby- Preliminary round Group B - 7:30pm onwards
Australia’s wheelchair rugby squad, The Steelers will begin its campaign against Great Britain.
The Steelers are led by Baringa’s Chris Bond and feature other Queenslanders Brayden Foxley-Conolly (Mackay), Ella Sabljak (Carrara), and Josh Nicholson (Wooloowin).
The Steelers won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games.
August 30, Friday
Men’s 400m freestyle S9 final - 1:30pm
Eight time world champion, Mango Hill’s Brendan Hall will likely swim for gold in the event he is the reigning world record holder in.
In the same race, three-time Tokyo gold medallist William Martin from Virginia will look to defend his title in the race he broke a Paralympic record in 2020.
Women’s 400m freestyle S9 final - 1:40am
Caboolture’s Lakeisha ‘Lucky’ Patterson will hopefully be swimming for her fourth Paralympic Games gold medal and to defend her freestyle title.
The 25-year-old stands a massive chance to collect gold.
Men’s 50m freestyle S10 final - 3:41am
Annerley’s Rowan Crothers is a two-time gold medallist and is on a quest to do what no para-swimmer has done before - break the 50 second barrier in the 100 metres.
In Tokyo he won gold in the 50m freestyle S10 and 4x100m freestyle relay as part of the Aussie team.
Men’s 100m butterfly S14 final - 2:36am
The Sunshine Coast’s Benjamin Hance won bronze in this event at Tokyo, as he comes off two gold medals, a silver and a bronze at the 2023 World Championships.
September 1, Sunday
Wheelchair rugby, Open placing playoff - 7:30PM onwards, Open semi-finals - 9:30 PM onwards
The Steelers will be hopeful to be on the charge to a medal and playing in the semi-finals.
September 2, Monday
Men’s 100m freestyle S10 final - 1:44am
Crothers will look for revenge against Ukraine’s Maksym Krypak who narrowly beat him in the 100m S10 event at Tokyo 2020 when he set the record.
September 3, Tuesday
Wheelchair rugby- Open gold medal match - 3:30am onwards
Will The Steelers led by a strong Queensland contingent be playing for gold like in 2012 and 2012?
September 4, Wednesday
Men’s 100m backstroke S9 final - 1:37am
All going to script, Hall will very likely feature in this final and swim for potentially his second gold medal of the games.
Men’s 400m freestyle S8 heats - 5:30pm onwards
Maroochydore’s Callum Simpson, whose father played for and captained the English Rugby 7s team, will make his Paralympic debut.
The Queenslander swims under two-time Olympian Chris Wright in Buderim on the Sunshine Coast.
Simpson will swim in this and the 100m freestyle s8 event in these games.
Women’s T36 round 1 - 8:20pm
Carindale’s Abby Craswell will make her Paralympic debut.
Abby holds the Australian National record currently which she set at the QLD states titles earlier this year.
Women’s Australian National Open 100m – T36 record holder.
September 5, Thursday
Women’s 100m freestyle S9 final - 3:35am
Patterson will hopefully be swimming for her second gold of the games.
September 6, Friday
Men’s 100m freestyle S8 heats - 5:30pm onwards
Callum Simpson will swim in his second event of these games.
Para canoe-Men’s kayak single KL2 heats - 6:00pm onwards
Burleigh Waters’ Curtis McGrath will begin his quest for a fourth gold medal in the KL2 and VL3 events.
McGrath won gold in both events in Tokyo, becoming the first para-canoe athlete to win two gold medals in one Paralympic Games.
Months after starting to compete in para-canoe, Curtis won a gold medal on debut at the 2014 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Sprint World Championships in Moscow.
September 7, Saturday
Men’s 100m butterfly S9 final- 2:35am
Hopefully Hall and Martin will again feature in the same final and be swimming for gold.
Men’s kayak single KL2 final A - 7:36pm
All going to plan, Curtis McGrath will be racing for a potential fourth gold medal.
Women’s 50m freestyle S4 final - 4:03am
Brisbane’s Rachael Watson will likely feature in this final where she has won gold twice in 2016 and 2020.
In Tokyo Watson had a remarkable swim from lane two to win and finish in a Paralympic record of 39.36.
Men’s 100m backstroke S14 final - 3:04am
Hance will likely be defending his backstroke crown in the final.
Hance won this event at Tokyo in a Paralympic record of 0:57.73, just 0.17 outside the world record time he set at the Australian Swimming Trials.
September 8, Sunday
Women’s 86kg final - 6:35pm
Hemmant’s Hani Watson broke Australia’s 16-year medal drought in powerlifting, winning bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
A gold medal at the 2022 Para-Powerlifting Brisbane Classic opened the door for her selection for the Commonwealth Games.
Men’s va’a single VL3 final A - 8:41pm
McGrath will be banking on repeating Tokyo glory and perhaps winning two golds in the same games.
Women’s 200m individual medley SM10 final - 1:38am
Patterson’s final swim of the games and chance to win gold.
Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay 34 points final - 4:34am
Our men’s team in Tokyo of William Martin, Rowan Crothers, Matt Levy,and Ben Popham broke the world record to be crowned Paralympic Champions with a time of 3:44.31.
September 9, Monday
Closing Ceremony - 12:30am
WHY IS PARALYMPICS CALLED PARALYMPICS?
The word “Paralympic” derives from the Greek preposition “para” (beside or alongside) and the word “Olympic”.
The meaning behind calling the games the Paralympics is to signify that it runs parallel to the Olympics and that the two competitions exist side-by-side.
It wasn’t until 1960 in Rome when the games were first called the Paralympic Games, featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries.
The games were previously called the Stoke Mandeville Games.
Since Seoul 1988, the Paralympics have taken part in the same cities and venues as the Olympics.
WHAT QUALIFIES YOU TO BE A PARALYMPIAN?
To ensure fairness of competition, all para-athletes must have an eligible impairment and meet the minimum impairment criteria set out in the World Para Athletics Classification Rules and Regulations.
There are 10 categories of impairment that athletes in the Paralympics compete with: impaired muscle power; impaired range of movement; limb deficiency; leg length difference; short stature; hypertonia; ataxia (affecting muscle co-ordination); athetosis (such as cerebral palsy); vision impairment; and intellectual disability.
To participate in the Paralympics, athletes must meet certain qualifying standards.
Alongside the impairment criteria, athletes are then placed into Classification.
Para-athletes are grouped by the degree of activity limitation resulting from their impairment.
FAMOUS PARALYMPIANS
Dylan Alcott
Alcott has won Paralympic gold in wheelchair tennis and basketball.
The Aussie is among that small group, joined only by American Randy Snow and Dutchwoman Maaike Smit.
Alcott’s disability is paraplegia and he switched to wheelchair basketball from tennis and was 15 won the Australian national team, the Rollers, won world championship bronze in 2006.
Alcott won gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, as the youngest member of the team and in 2012 the Rollers won silver at London.
Alcott returned to wheelchair tennis in 2014 and has gone on to dominate the quad tennis scene, winning 15 Grand Slam tournaments as well as double Paralympic gold in Rio.
He is also the first quad tennis player to complete the career grand slam, having won all four majors in both singles and doubles.
Trischa Zorn
Trischa won a total of 55 individual medals at the Paralympic Games, including 41 gold medals.
The USA athlete is the most successful Paralympian of all time by a big margin.
Blind since birth, she was born with aniridia and was classified legally blind. Later she received two artificial iris implants that improved her vision to 20/150.
In 2012, Zorn was inducted into the International Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame.
Ragnhild Myklebust
With 22 gold medals, Ragnhild is the second most successful Paralympian of all time and most successful winter Paralympian of all time.
Myklebust did not start competing in the Paralympics until she was in her 40s.
The Norwegian won medals in short, middle and long-distance cross-country skiing, as well as biathlon, and ice sledge racing. She is also a polio survivor.
Beatrice Hess
Beatrice Hess is a Paralympic swimmer from France who is considered one of the best swimmers in the world.
She has won 25 Paralympic medals, including 20 golds and sits third on the all-time list of Paralympic medal winners. Hess competed in the Paralympics between 1984 and 2004, competing in the S5 classification. She has cerebral palsy. At the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, she broke nine world records.
Reinhild Moeller
Reinhild Moeller is one of the most interesting entrants in the top 10 most successful Paralympians of all time having competed successfully in both the summer and winter Paralympic Games. Moeller has won a total of 23 Paralympic medals, including 19 golds across a number of disciplines. Moeller was most successful at the winter Paralympic Games, picking up 19 of her medals in women’s slalom, giant slalom, super-g and downhill events. She competed in the 100m, 200m and 400m at the summer Paralympic Games in 1984 and 1988, collecting three gold medals and one silver. Moeller lost half of her left leg in a farm accident when she was just three years old and was the first athlete with a disability to receive a $1 million sponsorship contract.
Louise Savage
Louise became one of wheelchair racing’s first truly professional athletes and would go on to dominate it for a decade, simultaneously raising the profile of Paralympic sport.
She has nine gold and four silver medals from four Paralympic Games between 1992 and 2004, including four gold medals and two world records at the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games.
Twelve gold and two silver medals from four IPC Athletics World Championships, including six gold medals in 1998
Savage was order the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993, Australian Paralympian of the Year in 1994, 1996, 1997 and 1998,
Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2007 and Sport Australia Hall of Fame Legend in 2019.
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