Two brothers, two sports, one day: Aussie family’s ‘nightmare’ Paralympics schedule
Paris: For the Perris family, Paris 2024 holds double the significance. Brothers Chad and Kane are both competing for Australia, a moment the siblings have been dreaming of.
Naturally, their events are unfolding on the same day, on the same morning, in venues more than an hour apart.
Kane Perris smiles at the crowd at the velodrome.Credit: Paralympics Australia
“Of course,” Kane says.
Chad, 32, is a seasoned Paralympic 100-metre sprinter. Paris marks his third time at the Games, where he is set to run his heat about 11.40am (Paris time) on Sunday at the Stade de France, in the city’s north.
Australian athletes Chad and Kane Perris, pictured together more than a year ago.
For 27-year-old Kane, a cyclist, this is his Paralympic debut. He’ll race the one-kilometre tandem time trial qualifier at 11am at the velodrome, in a town west of Paris.
The brothers, who were both born with albinism and about 5 per cent vision, haven’t been together in more than a year because Chad lives in Canberra and Kane is in Perth.
They will have to wait a bit longer. They won’t catch up until after the finals of their events, scheduled for later on Sunday.
“We speak almost every day,” Kane says. “[Being here together] is something that we’ve dreamed of for a very, very long time. It hasn’t sunk in yet that it is a reality, and I don’t think it will until I see him.”
Chad, who is nicknamed the “White Tiger”, said the scheduling was “a bit of a nightmare” for his parents, Ken and Sue.
The couple has hatched a plan with their sons, which involves starting their day at the velodrome to watch Kane’s qualifier then final.
They will miss Chad’s heat, but they’ll hail a couple of taxis along with other relatives to make the hour-long drive to the athletics stadium to watch the evening final.
Kane hopes to make it, too.
“It’s going to be a bit of an emotional roller-coaster for Mum and Dad,” Kane says.
But for now, Ken says he is just excited to have two boys selected to wear the green and gold.
Kane Perris with pilot Luke Zaccaria at the front of the tandem bike.Credit: Getty Images
“Managing the logistics of the two venues is really a minor issue in the grand scheme of things,” he says.
Kane wasn’t always keen on high-performance sport. When it was initially suggested to him in 2020, his first thought was “absolutely not”.
Chad Perris competes at the World Para-Athletics Championships in 2017. Credit: Getty
He had seen over many years the commitment and resilience it required of his older brother. But after mulling it over, he seized the challenge.
He had hardly any bike experience, but now is a tandem cyclist with sighted pilot Luke Zaccaria. They raced in the four-kilometre individual pursuit on Thursday, placing 14th, but Kane said the one-kilometre sprint was their specialty.
Kane’s journey to Paris has been rocky: in 2021, he sustained a serious back injury that put him out of action for 10 months, and a crash at the world championships this year left him with broken ribs and a punctured lung.
Chad said he was immensely proud of what his brother had achieved in just four years. “Those guys have to be the elite of the elite. So it’s really impressive to see his rise, and I’m really pumped to have him alongside me here in Paris.”
Chad said he had a feeling of freedom going into these Games. He picked up bronze in Rio 2016, then came fifth in Tokyo. He also placed fourth in world championships the last two years.
“I don’t think I’ve got any pressure on my shoulders at all. Previous games there was pressure to try to execute the right race and back up medal performances,” he said.
“I’m just excited to go out and run fast, and I know I’m in very good shape.”
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