Port Paralympian honoured with co flag-bearing duty in Tokyo
On the eve of his fifth Paralympic Games, wheelchair rugby athlete Ryley Batt phoned his wife Crystal from Tokyo to tell her to ‘watch the news.’ What she witnessed made her heart melt.
Mid-North Coast
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Twelve months ago Crystal Batt had her Tokyo tickets booked to watch her champion wheelchair rugby husband take on the world at his fifth Paralympics.
The stars were aligning perfectly for the Batt family, with Port Macquarie’s prodigal son Ryley Batt contesting his fifth Paralympics and a chance to defend his third gold medal for the Steelers wheelchair rugby team in front of his beloved wife and two step daughters.
But fast forward to day of the Opening Ceremony, the Batt girls won’t be watching Ryley from the stands tonight, instead they’ll be viewing the Aussie flag bearer from the comfort of their own home during a Face Time session with several other of the close-knit Steelers family members.
Despite the disappointment of not being there, the family got a boost on Monday night after Ryley rang Crystal to tell her to watch the news.
“I had a little bit of an inkling that it might have been the case,” Crystal told The Mid-North Coast News about the flag bearing announcement.
“But I’m also a massive fan of [co flag-bearer] Danni Di Toro, so I actually thought it might have just been her doing it by herself, but for them both to be doing it together, that’s just amazing.”
Ryley, 32, who runs the North Brother Cross Fit gym with Crystal, and Australian wheelchair tennis player Di Toro, will be the only two Aussies at Tokyo’s Meiji-Jingu Park when they carry the flag into the stadium.
The Tokyo Paralympic Games are the first to feature two flag-bearers.
Batt guided Australia to its first ever wheelchair rugby gold medal in 2012, before achieving the same feat at the 2016 Games in Rio.
He is going for back-to-back-to-back Gold in 2021, and while he might not have the support of his three girls in person, they’ll be watching every single moment from home.
“I must admit we were utterly devastated that we couldn’t go,” Crystal said.
“We actually had all of our tickets booked 12 months ago, so we would have been there.
“My grandparents were coming, my mother-in-law, we would have been with all the other Paralympic families – it would have been beautiful.
“Now it’ll just be me and the girls in our lounge room.
“We’ve got some really close family within the Steelers team so I’ll Face Time a couple of them and watch it together.”
Crystal and Ryley met 11 years ago at a gym, but it certainly wasn’t Ryley’s fame that attracted her to him at the outset.
“I didn’t actually know his background at all … I always make a joke that the Ryley that I know is completely different from the guy that takes the field,” she said.
“I think that if I actually saw him on the court first, I probably would never have started dating him in the first place,” she joked.
“He’s just the kindest, most sweetest sensitive guy … he’ll probably hate me for saying it … that I’ve ever met in my life.”
The pair married in 2015, and Crystal brought her two daughters, Aaliyah and Lillian, into Ryley’s life - who she said they just ‘absolutely adore.’
Crystal said the girls are incredibly proud of what their dad has been able to achieve as a parent and professional athlete.
“They’re so proud,” Crystal said.
“They’ve made a lot of sacrifices in their life for their dad to be able to do what he’s able to do ... they just absolutely adore him.”
She said while Ryley’s a fierce competitor out on the court, you wouldn’t know it at home.
“He definitely doesn't have that kind of personality when he’s taking people out of their chairs,” she said laughing.
She said what keeps him motivated to keep performing at the top level after close to 20 years, is his perseverance for team sport.
“Team sport is his thing,” she said.
“He never wants to let anybody down, his motivation is them. When they’re out there, doing what they need to do, he always wants to be able to step up and do the same thing. Team sports is a massive motivator.
“The stories of the Paralympics is what makes it. These different people, out there conquering a life that some of us wouldn’t have even imagined.
“To be competing at the level they are is pretty spectacular for these guys.”
The Steelers will play their first match on Wednesday at 3pm against Denmark.
They are part of Pool A which also consists of Japan and France.
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