Rosemary Little

EVENTS:  F32 Shot Put and Club Throw

AGE:  42

COACH:  Bre Clements

STATE: NSW

AUSTRALIAN TEAM DEBUT: 2012 Paralympics

PERSONAL BESTS: 100m T34 18.34 (4 Jun 2015), Shot Put 6.34m (22 Jan 2023), Club Throw 16.46m (14 Mar 2024)

BIOGRAPHY

Rosemary Little started in the sport after she attended at a 'Come and Try' day conducted by NSW Wheelchair Sports in 2003 when she was aged 20. She started competing in athletics shortly after. She missed selection for the 2004 Paralympic Games, deciding to put her career on hold until 2011. Upon return she made her international debut in 2012 at the London Paralympics, competing in the 100m and 200m. She just missed the podium in the longer sprint, but in the 100m claimed bronze in the T34 category, clocking a time of 19.95 seconds.

Rosemary was even better in 2013 at the World Para-Athletics Championships, again winning bronze in the 100m, but over 200m winning the silver medal. At the Rio Paralympics in 2016, she added the 800m to her program placing fourth. She also was fifth in the 100m and fourth in the 200m.

But things with her health had not been good for a while. After Rio she was admitted to hospital after suffering bouts of pneumonia. She had been unable to compete at the 2015 World Championships and was also affected in Rio in 2016. Doctors diagnosed her with a rare spinal tumour and her wheelchair classification was changed and she also started competing in a new event – the shot put.

She was selected for the Tokyo Paralympics where she placed fifth in the shot with a throw of 6.26m

For the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Rosemary needed to return to the track with only the T34 100m on the program. She earned an invite as a top-8 ranked athlete in the Commonwealth. She placed sixth in the T34 100m in a time of 23.05.

Rosemary was been in good form in the shot during the 2023 summer, reaching 6.34m. In May she was named in the Australian team for her third world championships, to be held in Paris in July where she won bronze in the T34 shot with a throw of 6.33m. She also placed ninth in the 100m.

She has been selected for her fourth Paralympics in Paris where she will compete in the F32 shot and a new event the F32 Club Throw.

Education: Occupational Therapist from Sydney University and Audiology at Macquarie University…Other sports: competed internationally in hand-cycling and para-rowing…Impairment: From the ages 12 to 18 she had to relearn all her skills aged age 12 she contracted a form of the brain virus autoimmune encephalitis, which resulted in spontaneous quadriplegia and uncontrollable muscle contractures. She also lost all her memory.

 @ 22 Aug 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au