Meet Cairns' Olympians and Paralympians

Cairns, located in Far North Queensland, has produced an impressive array of Olympians and Paralympians who have excelled on the world stage. The city boasts athletes who have represented Australia in sports such as baseball, hockey, swimming, athletics - including Australia's fastest man.

Get to know some of the Olympians and Paralympians who hail from Cairns.

Grant (Scooter) Patterson, began swimming at 11. Although Para swimming wasn't his first choice, it was one of the few sports available for people with diastrophic dysplasia, just like him. Scooter met his coach Andrew Howard in 2007 and they began working towards the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games. Unfortunately, he missed qualification by just one and a half seconds.

However, his journey didn't stop there and it was just the beginning! In 2009 at the Australian Swimming Championships, he became the first S3 athlete to break the two-minute barrier in the men’s 100m backstroke. Scooter would go on to make his World Championships debut a year later before he brought home seven medals from the 2011 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships.

He made his Paralympic Games debut at London 2012 then returned to the Paralympic stage nine years later at Tokyo 2020. He achieved his lifelong dream of winning a Paralympic medal when he secured bronze in the men's 150m individual medley SM3. Scooter would also secure a silver in the men's 50m breaststroke SB2.

After his performance at Tokyo 2020, Scooter received the keys to his hometown Cairns at Tobruk Memorial Pool in front of about 150 people including his grandparents who made the trip up from Brisbane.

At Paris 2024, he was again back on the podium after securing two bronze medals in the men's 150m individual medley SM3 and men's 50m breaststroke SB2.

Mary began playing football at the age of seven. She was the youngest of five children, all of whom played the beautiful game. Growing up, it was common to see the Fowler siblings kicking the ball around at Trinity Beach. She also played locally for Cairns-based clubs Saints FC and Leichhardt FC.

At the age of 11, the family moved to the Netherlands, living in Rotterdam and Arnhem, to develop her and her siblings’ football skills.

At 14, the family moved back to Australia, where she played in the New South Wales Women’s National Premier League with the Illawarra Stingrays and Bankstown City.

Before even signing a contract in Australia’s top league, known as the W-League (now the A-League Women’s), Mary made her senior national team debut at the Tournament of Nations 2018 against Brazil, at just 15 years old. She made two further appearances for Australia that year in friendly matches.

Mary was selected for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 squad, but a hamstring injury prevented her from making her World Cup debut. The following year, she moved to France to play for Montpellier in the Division 1 Féminine in January 2020 before being selected for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she scored a decisive goal against Great Britain in the quarterfinals.

In June 2022, she inked a four-year deal with Manchester City in the English WSL.

She again featured in the Matildas Olympic squad for Paris 2024, playing in all of Australia’s group matches.

Patrick is Australia's fastest man.

He was born on a speed boat en route to Cairns Base Hospital - this is on his birth certificate too. His mother's family is from Lockhart River in far North Queensland, they are Kaantyu people, while his father is Irish. Unfortunately, when Patrick was just two-years-old his mother passed away in a car crash. Thereafter, the dual Olympian grew up on his father's mackerel trawler, travelling up and down the east coast of Australia for the next 17 years.

He started running competitively at the age of 24, which came by chance at the 1996 Australian University Games in Canberra. Despite, running in spikes three sizes too big and getting a late start out the blocks, he won the 100m in 10.94 seconds.

However, in the midst of all this, Patrick was set to have a trial with the North Queensland Cowboys in Australia's National Rugby League competition, but the night before the match he was awarded a scholarship to the Australian Insitute of Sport.

Patrick represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 (100m, 200m and 4x100m relay) and Athens 2004, where he was part of the 4x100m team to make the final, as well as three Commonwealth Games (2002, 2006 and 2010).

In 2003, he became the first non-African descent and only Australian to break the 10-second barrier for the 100m, running 9.93 in Mito, Japan. Patrick was regarded as the fastest man of non-African descent before Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre ran 9.92 seconds in 2011.

To this day, Patrick holds the Oceania and Australian record in the men's 100m.

Frank, whose mother is a Torres Strait Islander person and father Italian, spent part of his childhood in Papua New Guinea before moving to Cairns, where he attended St Augustine's College and played for local clubs Stratford United and Edge Hill United. His talent earned him a scholarship to the Australian Institute of Sport in 1982.

The prolific forward's playing career spanned several countries, including Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, and England. He even led the Brisbane Strikers to the National Soccer League title as player-coach in 1997,

Farina also made significant contributions to the Australian national team, earning 37 caps and scoring 11 goals between 1984 and 1995, which included becoming an Olympian at Soeul 1988.

After retiring, Farina transitioned to coaching, managing the Australian national team (1998 to 2005), becoming the first Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander to hold this position. He also coached various clubs, including A-League sides Brisbane Roar and Sydney FC, and the national teams of Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

Brett Roneberg is a two-time Olympian who was part of Australia’s silver medal men’s baseball team at Athens 2004. Born in Sandringham, Melbourne, his family relocated to the Cairns coastal suburb of Trinity Beach in the 80s. The family ended up living across the road from a baseball field, so it wasn’t long before they all became involved in the sport. Baseball was central to the Roneberg family, with Brett’s father, Geoff, becoming a key figure in Cairns’ baseball community.

Brett represented Australia at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, where the team finished seventh. He was once again selected for Team Australia for Athens 2004, where they reached the gold medal match after beating Japan in the semifinals. They faced Cuba in the final, going down to the three-time Olympic medallists. To this date, it is Australia’s best finish in Olympic baseball.

Away from the national team, Brett spent 11 seasons playing Minor League Baseball, including with the Altoona Curve, Brevard County Manatees, and Portland Sea Dogs.

Brett was inducted into the Queensland Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015.

Robyn was a member of Australia’s women’s hockey team that competed in the Olympic Games for the first time. Although women’s hockey debuted at the Moscow 1980 Olympics, Australia’s hockey teams did not participate due the US-led boycott of the Games. Initially, Robyn was selected to make her Olympic debut at those Games.

In Los Angeles 1984, Robyn finally made her long-awaited Olympic debut during Australia’s round-robin match against Canada, coming off the bench. She also played in the match against the Netherlands.

Australia faced the United States in a penalty shoot-out for the bronze medal after both teams finished equal on points and goal difference in the round-robin stage. The United States clinched the bronze, winning the shoot-out 10-5.

Chris was a dominant force in Australian butterfly. In fact, he still holds the Australian record for the men's short course 200m Butterfly that he broke in 2009.

The former Bently Park local competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the 100m and 200m for butterfly. His time of 51.67 in the 100m butterfly at trials was a personal best and was the fastest time of the year in the world at that time. At the Games, he finished eighth in his semi-final of the 200m butterfly before a fourth place finish in his semi-final of the 100m butterfly saw him miss the final by 0.26secs.

He went on to swim at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games - his second behind Delhi 2010 - as well as two World Championships and two Pan Pacific Games.

After retiring from professional swimming, Chris completed a Bachelor of Environmental Design at Griffith University. But the former Olympian didn't stray too far from the pool, becoming an assistant coach at the Griffith University, supporting the work of Olympic coach Michael Bohl.

Chris married fellow Olympian swimmer Melanie Schlanger in 2014. They welcomed their first child, a baby girl in 2017 before their second child, a boy, was born in 2019.

Christopher and Melanie now own a swim school on the Sunshine Coast.