2016 Rio Paralympics: former Aussie soldier Curtis McGrath ready to deal with para-canoe pressure

IN Australia, a country built on sport and its Anzac heritage, what more compelling story could there be than a wounded soldier fighting for gold on the global stage?

Curtis McGrath will be pushing for gold in the para-canoe.

EIGHT mates ride with Curtis McGrath in his single-seat kayak.

Eight mates. Every race. Every training session. Every minute, every day.

And this is important, because you think you’ve heard the Curtis McGrath yarn: ‘Aussie soldier in Afghanistan, steps on a land mine and loses both legs, then barely gives the rescue chopper time to lift off the battlefield before vowing “You’ll see me at the 2016 Rio Paralympics”’.

True to his word, McGrath is here.

And his backstory, his journey since that 2012 explosion, is perhaps the best known in Australia’s team of 177 athletes at these Games.

Curtis McGrath wears a memorial bracelet on his right wrist.

In the months leading up to his Paralympic Games debut, the 28-year-old Kiwi-born Queenslander has featured in Swisse ads, news pages and TV profiles.

This former combat engineer retelling the horror memories of walking from one boulder to another in Afghanistan’s remote Uruzgan district, then; dust.

No bang, no blast. Just dust, a shower of rocks, and a flood of excruciating pain as he looked down at where his legs should have been.

Four years later, McGrath is a national hero.

For in Australia, a country built on sport and its Anzac heritage, what more compelling story could there be than a wounded soldier fighting for gold on the global stage?

But none of that will matter in the seconds before McGrath launches the heat phase of his 200m KL2 sprint at Lagoa Stadium.

When, as always, he looks down at the memorial bracelet on his right wrist, and calls on those eight mates.

“It’s got the names of eight engineers killed in the Afghanistan theatre,” he said.

“That’s always close to my mind in making sure we never forget the sacrifices those guys have made.

“There’s actually 41 servicemen who have passed away in Afghanistan. So my list could be bigger, but I’m afraid the bracelet would need to be armguard.

Curtis McGrath is the reigning world champion.

“I just want to make sure that I’m doing the best I can do for the men and women who haven’t come home. That’s why before each race, I look down at my memorial bracelet, and I race for a person that hasn’t returned.”

McGrath enters his sole event in Rio at 10.30pm (EST) tonight as the reigning world champion in his KL2 class.

A heats and repechage phase will shape the final field, scheduled to race for the first para-canoe gold medals contested in Paralympic competition about 10pm (EST) on Thursday.

McGrath said despite all the pre-Games attention, he felt no distraction or added pressure.

“A little bit, I guess, but it’s only from myself,” he said.

“As we get close the pressure does build from the external side of things but you can’t let that get to you.

“It’s just a part of sport. We pride ourselves in Australia as being a country of sportspeople.

“I’m just grateful to be here, be part of this team, and be part of something that shows the power of sport and how it allows people to do great things.”

Originally published as 2016 Rio Paralympics: former Aussie soldier Curtis McGrath ready to deal with para-canoe pressure