Samuel Rizzo

EVENTS:  Men's T54 800m, 1500m, 5000m

AGE:  24 (DOB  3 Aug 2000)

COACH:  Richard Colman

STATE: VIC

AUSTRALIAN TEAM DEBUT: 2017 World Junior Para Athletics Championships

PERSONAL BEST: 800m 1:33.06 (21 May 2023), 1500m 2:50.84 (13 Feb 2024), 5000m 10:03.69 (15 Feb 2024)

BIOGRAPHY

Sam Rizzo’s coach Richard Coleman has had an enormous impact on his journey in the sport. Sam met Richard when he was aged eight and later that year watched him win gold at the 2008 Paralympics. In 2012 Richard’s mother contact Sam and suggested he might like to give wheelchair racing a go. “I loved it from the first time I got in a race chair on the track,” he recalled. 

He made his international championships debut in 2017 at the World Para Junior Championships in Switzerland where he claimed bronze medals in each of the T54 wheelchair 100m, 800m and 1500m events. Sam had the honour of being the team flagbearer.

As a teenager he made his senior international debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. Competing in the T54 1500m, alongside a legendary athlete Kurt Fearnley, Sam progressed through the heats and into the final where he placed sixth clocking 3:14.16.

Over the next five years Sam competed regularly, travelling to International competitions in Dubai and Switzerland, but in 2023 make his return to the National team with his selection for the World Para Athletics Championships. Held in Paris, Sam competed in the T54 100m heats, was 9th in the 1500m (2:55.32) and 10th in the 5000m (10:25.36).

In 2024 he competed at his second world championships in Kobe Japan placing 7th in the 800m final and 6th in his 1500m heat. Domestically he was progressing, setting PBs in the 1500m (2:50.84) and 5000m (10:03.69). Mid-year he was named in the Australian team for the Paris Paralympic Games where he will compete in the T54 800m, 1500m and 5000m. 

Sam’s hobbies outside of athletics include film and bass guitar. He has also competed in wheelchair basketball. His heros are Kurt Fearnley, Marcel Hug and especially his coach Richard Coleman “He is so committed to the sport. He has achieved a lot within the sport. He has been my coach and mentor since the beginning. He gives me tips and strategies to help, but it means more because he has been through it all.”

@ 23 August 2024 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au