Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: Madison de Rozario, Brenden Hall, Alexa Leary and more Team Australia athletes to watch
After the Olympic Games Paris 2024 drew a record-breaking 30.6 million viewers to make it the most-streamed Games of all time, the drama continues as the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 kicks off on 28 August.
Across 12 days, performances will falter, records will be broken, and dreams will be realised as the best Paralympic athletes in the world compete for the coveted Paris 2024 medals, each uniquely embedded with an original piece of the Eiffel Tower.
Australia saw unprecedented success through the Olympic Games, posting their best-ever results with 18 gold medals, 19 silver and 16 bronze to total 53 pieces of hardware. On top of this, world and Olympic records were broken, crowns were taken in sports never before won by Australians, and a laundry list of firsts will go down in history.
Now, 160 Australian Paralympians will continue to make and break history in France's capital from 28 August - 8 September.
Here are six athletes from down-under to follow throughout Paris 2024.
Eliza Ault Connell of Team Australia races a competitor side-by-side at Tokyo 2020 in the women's wheelchair marathon
Madison de Rozario - Para Athletics
Soon to be five-time Paralympian Madison de Rozario is one to watch on the track in Paris, as the Australian veteran looks to add to her collection of six Paralympic medals and defend her Tokyo 2020 title in the 800m T53 and marathon T54.
The 30-year-old was selected for the honour of carrying her country’s flag in the Opening Ceremony alongside three-time Paralympic champion Brendan Hall.
De Rozario holds the world record in the women’s 800m T53 and boasts first-place finishes in the New York and London marathons.
Throughout her career, the Perth native has advocated for people with disabilities and has been awarded with countless honours, including the Cosmopolitan Sportswoman of the Year in 2018 and Paralympics Australia Athlete of the Year in 2020.
De Rozario is set to race in the women’s 1500m and 500m T54, as well as the women’s marathon.
Madison de Rozario of Team Australia reacts after winning the gold medal in the women's Marathon - T54 at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games at Olympic Stadium on September 05, 2021.
Brenden Hall - Para Swimming, S9
Hall, who will bear the Australian flag in the Opening Ceremonies alongside de Rozario, made his Olympic debut in 2008 and has since amassed a total of six Paralympic medals, including two golds in the 400m freestyle S9, as well as another in the 4x100m freestyle.
Now an eight-time world champion, Hall’s life was turned upside-down when he lost much of his hearing and his right leg to chicken pox in 1999.
But through the past two-and-a-half decades, the now 31-year-old has become a world-record holder, 19-time World and Paralympic medallist, a husband and a father.
Hall plans to dominate the 400m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly S9 in Paris as “one last crack” before retiring with presumably an even-more stacked trophy cabinet.
Shae Graham - Wheelchair Rugby
Australia’s Shae Graham became the first woman to represent her nation at the Paralympics in wheelchair rugby, in 2021, opening the door for two more women who will join her on the team in Paris in the mixed gender event.
After a devastating car accident at 18 years old left the teenager with a fractured spine and pelvis, brain injury and ruptured bladder, it was 10 years before Graham stepped into the world of para-sports.
And she only did so after losing a bet to her brother over a few beers on holiday. The penance? Take up a sport chosen by her younger sibling — wheelchair rugby. (For what it's worth, he would have had to carry his sister's bags for the rest of the vacation).
Graham loved the sport immediately and tenacity drove her success, becoming the first Australian woman to play internationally, for the side nicknamed the Steelers, just five years later in 2019.
In 2022, Graham, who works in the rather more unassuming role as librarian by day, contributed to her team’s world title and in Paris, Graham is looking to help land Australia back on top of the podium to mark a third Paralympic crown for the Steelers.
Jaryd Clifford - Para Athletics, T13
Two-time world champion Jaryd Clifford is hungry for Paralympic gold after taking two silver medals and a bronze at Tokyo 2020.
“I went to Tokyo dreaming of gold,” he wrote on Instagram after the Games, delayed to 2021.
“I pushed my body to its absolute limits, but still fell short. I was shattered, but proud I kept fighting to the end… I’ve added a quote to the dreams on my whiteboard.
My teammate (Scott Reardon) said it to me as I sat in an ice-bath after my 5000m: “Sometimes it takes silver to win gold”. I don’t think he realised at the time, but those words were powerful. They’ll be with me... on the road to #Paris2024.”
Three years later and that statement has held true, as the visually-impaired runner gears up to take the track at the Stade de France, where he hopes to stand on top of the podium and finally clinch that Paralympic crown in the 1500m and 5000m T12.
Alexa Leary - Para Swimming S9
Making her Paralympic debut in Paris is 23-year-old swimmer Alexa Leary, who, at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships, came close to a world record in the women’s 100m freestyle S9 in which she won gold.
It was an incredible accomplishment for the swimmer, who was a promising triathlete until a cycling accident in July of 2021 resulted in brain damage, blood clots and several broken bones.
She spent more than 100 days in hospital, where her family was told to say their last goodbyes on eight occasions.
But now, just three years later, she is gearing up to take the Paralympic stage as a gold medal contender in the women’s 50m and 100m freestyle S9.
Alistair Donohoe - Para Cycling
After clinching three silver medals and a bronze between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, four-time world para-cycling champion Alistair Donohoe is hungry to land on top of the podium in Paris and finally take a Paralympic crown.
His passion for sport and cycling began in his formative years, so when the Aussie suffered a freak rope swing accident that almost cost him his right arm at 15 years old, there was little deterrent to his love of sport.
Dubbed “the Flying Mullet,” Donohoe made his World Championships debut in 2013 and his career soared from there.
In Paris, the Northern Territory athlete will race in four events: the men’s C5 4000m individual pursuit and C1-5 750m team sprint on the track, as well as the C4-5 road race and C5 individual time trial on the road.