The queen of Dunedoo and the king of southern Sydney in quest of Australia’s first boccia gold medal.
A rejigged wheelchair basketball crew seeking to discover the correct steadiness of youth and expertise.
A rowing juggernaut seeking to convey house the primary gold medal of their occasion.
And a groundbreaking wheelchair rugby facet lasered in on avenging a uncommon medal-less exhibiting at Tokyo 2020.
These are the Australian Paralympic groups pushing for gold in Paris.
Boccia: Jamieson Lesson and Dan Michel
Boccia B3 pairs world primary ranked crew Dan Michel and Jamieson Leeson. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)
Dan Michel made his Paralympic debut in boccia at Rio 2016, although it was at Tokyo 2020 that his legend was actually born.
He grew to become the primary Australian to medal within the sport since 1996, with a bronze within the Combined BC3.
But it surely was heartbreak within the combined pairs competitors. He, in addition to teammates Spencer Cotie and Jamison Lesson, was eradicated earlier than the semifinal stage.
In Paris, he’ll crew up with Jamieson Leeson within the BC3 pairs.
Leeson hails from the tiny central west NSW city of Dunedoo, and solely started her boccia journey a yr earlier than her Video games debut in 2021.
Since then, she and Michel, alongside ramp operators Ash Maddern and Jasmine Hayden, have constructed a combined pairs machine.
Quite a few titles, together with a World Cup win in Montreal in 2023, have propelled the king and queen of boccia to a world primary rating heading into Paris.
The AIS 2023 Staff of the Yr are crimson sizzling favourites to create historical past and win Australia’s first-ever gold medal within the sport.
Wheelchair Rugby: Steelers
The Australian Steelers crew rejoice on the Worldwide Wheelchair Rugby World Cup in Paris in October 2023. (Equipped: Paralympics Australia/Megumi Masuda)
Australia’s wheelchair rugby crew, the Steelers, are titans of the game.
Just like the All-Blacks in rugby union or Brazil in soccer, for lengthy stretches of their existence, the Steelers have been the crew to beat.
However back-to-back golds in London and Rio have been adopted up by a primary medal-less exhibiting in 17 years at Tokyo 2020.
The 2024 incarnation of the crew heads to Paris with a 2022 World Championship win beneath its belt and will likely be quietly assured of re-assuming its Paralympic throne.
The facet will likely be led by wheelchair rugby royalty Ryley Batt and Chris Bond and can characteristic a report breaking three girls, in Shae Graham, Emilie Miller and Ella Sabljak.
Graham made her Paralympic debut in 2021 as the primary feminine wheelchair rugby participant to characterize Australia at a Video games.
Miller and Sabljak have emerged as Steelers regulars since Tokyo, and credit score a lot of their rise to the pioneering Graham.
“She actually opened doorways for us feminine gamers to leap into,” Sabljak informed ABC Sport in 2023.
Identified for its exhausting hits and brutal play, the game as soon as referred to as “murderball” is all the time a crowd favorite.
Wheelchair Basketball: Rollers
Australian males’s wheelchair basketball crew captain Tristan Knowles. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)
Australia’s males’s wheelchair basketball crew roll into Paris on the again of some stellar kind.
Eighteeen wins from 21 matches in 2023 suggests they might be on for a medal for the primary time since 2012.
The facet options six Paralympic debutants, however loads of expertise anchors the squad, with Shaun Norris and captain Tristan Knowles set to grace a record-equalling sixth Video games.
Each Knowles and Norris have been concerned in Australia’s solely gold medal within the sport, again at Beijing 2008.
Remarkably, the 2 youngest members of the squad, Jaylen Brown and Eithen Leard, have been born after that triumph.
Discovering the correct steadiness of youth and expertise will likely be key to a profitable Rollers marketing campaign.
And that equilibrium will likely be examined early on, with a showdown in opposition to reigning gold medallists the USA looming within the pool section.
The Gilders, Australia’s girls’s wheelchair basketball crew, is not going to be a part of Paris 2024. They didn’t qualify for under the second time within the crew’s historical past.
Rowing: Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager
Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager are gold medal favourites in Paris. (ABC Information: Brant Cumming)
Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager need to win the primary Paralympic gold medal of their occasion.
The 2 met in 2017 at an Australian rowing camp, however they solely actually fashioned after it was introduced that PR3 combined double sculls can be included on the Paralympic program for the primary time ever at Paris 2024.
And regardless of 2023 being the pair’s debut season, they actually made a mark.
They broke the world report by a full 20 seconds, after which broke it once more, earlier than they have been topped world champions in Serbia.
All this culminated in duo being named the 2023 World Para Rowing Staff of the Yr.
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