The swimming and athletics stars you will need to watch on the Paris Paralympics

Alexa Leary solely started her Para-swimming journey after a severe biking accident ended her triathlon profession three years in the past. However she heads to Paris 2024 with a world document in her sights. 

Dash celebrity Rowan Crothers has two Paralympic gold medals and has received a number of World Championships. He’s now aiming to interrupt new floor.

In Tokyo, Madison de Rozario cemented her place within the pantheon of Paralympic legends with an epic marathon win. Australia’s 2024 flag-bearer can be there in Paris to defend her crown. 

At Tokyo 2020, 11 of the 21 Australian gold medals have been received within the pool, on the monitor or within the discipline. 

These are the Australian swimming and athletics stars finest positioned to assist eclipse that whole at Paris 2024. 

Rowan Crothers

Historical past awaits Rowan Crothers at Paris 2024. 

In Tokyo, he received gold within the 50m freestyle S10 and silver within the 100m freestyle S10. 

This time round, Crothers says his focus is firmly on going one higher over two laps. 

And if he does, he has an actual shot of changing into the primary Paralympian to interrupt the 50-second barrier. His present 100m PB is 50.70 seconds. 

This may make him the quickest para-swimmer of all time. 

Brenden Corridor

Chosen alongside Madison de Rozario as Australia’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony, Brenden Corridor has been a Paralympic mainstay since Beijing 2008.

He received back-to-back golds within the 400m freestyle S9 in London and Rio, however did not medal within the occasion in Tokyo, ending fourth. 

After bagging a bronze in the identical occasion on the 2023 World Championships, Corridor can be hoping to roll again the years in Paris. 

Alexa Leary

Paris 2024 can be Alexa Leary’s Paralympic debut. 

She solely took up Para-swimming in 2021, after a biking accident led to a 100-day hospital keep and rehab that concerned her studying to stroll and discuss once more. 

She says she is known as a miracle due to her unimaginable restoration. 

Leary made fast progress within the pool, profitable gold within the Girls’s 100m Freestyle S9 and silver within the ladies’s 50m Freestyle S9 eventually yr’s World Championships. 

And along with her time in Manchester solely a sliver off word-record tempo, Leary is poised to interrupt new water in Paris. 

Lakeisha Patterson

Having made her Paralympic debut in 2016, Lakeisha “Fortunate” Patterson has received the ladies’s 400m freestyle in two separate courses. 

Beginning her profession as an S8 and triumphing within the occasion at Rio, she was reclassified as an S9 in time for her win in Tokyo. 

Seeking to develop into solely the second Australian swimmer to win three golds in the identical occasion, a 2023 World Championship victory bodes effectively for the 400m specialist.

Tim Hodge

Tim Hodge, 23, made waves on the Paralympic trials earlier this yr with a world document within the males’s 200m Particular person Medley SM9. 

And with three golds in his final two World Championship meets, that was not a swim from the blue. 

Paris 2024 can be his second Video games and he can be hoping to win the primary Paralympic gold of his profession. 

Madison de Rozario 

Australia’s flag-bearer and wheelchair racer extraordinaire, Madison de Rozario can be competing at her fifth Video games in Paris. 

Regardless of profitable each the London and New York marathons, smashing a number of world information and accumulating a slew of World Championships medals, de Rozario needed to wait till Tokyo 2020 to take dwelling her first Paralympic gold. 

In Paris, she can be seeking to defend her marathon crown, in addition to triumph within the 1500m and 5,000m occasions.

Vanessa Low 

By the point she made her Australian lengthy bounce debut, Vanessa Low was already a Paralympic gold medallist. 

In 2016, she conquered the T42 lengthy bounce for Germany, the nation of her start. However after marrying Australian Paralympian Scott Reardon and receiving citizenship, she started competing for her adopted dwelling in 2019. 

And a change of group colors was clearly no distraction for Low at Tokyo 2020, as she received gold for Australia within the T61 lengthy bounce – a title she can be hoping to defend in Paris. 

James Turner 

Earlier than he turned his consideration to the monitor, James Turner may very well be discovered marshalling the midfield for Australia’s 7-aside Para-football group, the Pararoos. 

He made his monitor and discipline debut in Rio, profitable gold and smashing the world document within the 800m T36. However with that occasion being faraway from the Paralympic program for Tokyo 2020, there could be no title defence. 

As a substitute, Turner ran each the 100m T36 and 400m T36, through which he received silver and gold respectively. He can be again in Paris for a similar two occasions. 

Telaya Blacksmith 

Paris 2024 would be the first style of Paralympic motion for 16-year-old lengthy bounce and 400m star Telaya Blacksmith.  

She is the primary Walpiri athlete to characterize Australia at a Video games and one among 4 First Nations Paralympians heading to Paris. 

In 2022, on the age of simply 14, she received her first gold medal on the Virtus Oceania Asia Video games in Brisbane, and final yr she competed on the Virtus World Video games in France. 

However regardless of her sturdy type heading into Paris 2024, she is maintaining her toes firmly on the bottom. 

“Possibly silver or bronze could be a superb expertise for my first Paralympic medals,” she advised ABC earlier this month.