A mix of youth and experience make up Australian Paralympic Athletics Team for Tokyo

Australia’s 36-strong team for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics are completing their final preparations ahead of the Games, where once again they are shaping up as a force on the world stage.

The team boasts a wide range of experience across various disciplines and classes, including numerous Paralympic and World Champions that will be looking to lead the green and gold to Paralympic glory.

From Christie Dawes (Andrew Dawes) heading to her seventh Paralympic Games, to the youngest athlete on the Australian Para-athletics Team, Jaydon Page (Sebastian Kuzminski) at just 16-years-old, the Australian Paralympic Athletics Team for Tokyo includes a mix of stalwart talent and youth, shining a  light on the future of the sport.

Dawes, who made her Australian Paralympic Team debut in Atlanta as 16-year-old in 1996  is the oldest athlete on the team, and is looking forward to competing at the pinnacle event once again.

“It’s really a privilege to be going to my seventh Paralympics. I don’t take it for granted for a second. It’s the people and the sport that really make it for me. It’s a community we have, and one that I’ve been a part of for my entire life,” Dawes said.

“The Games in Tokyo and the Games in Atlanta will feel similar, with crowd numbers identical. Things have changed for Paralympic sport since 1996. It wasn’t marketed, televised much, and people saw it as participation-based rather than anything elite or competitive. Times have certainly changed."

“Today there is media coverage, ticket sales, and how seriously the public takes us now is worlds apart from when I started racing. We are  recognised as elite athletes that train just as hard as our able-bodied counterparts and have the same determination as our counterparts too.”

Dawes competes in the marathon in the T54 class, with increased attention to the Paralympics also driving the sport to greater technological advancements. The 41-year-old says things have come a long way from soft leather gloves and spiked wheels to 3D printed gloves and carbon-fibre discs - not to mention new racing frames being designed by BMW and Honda utilising Formula 1 technology.

Dawes is optimistic ahead of her seventh Paralympics, with her experience allowing her to put the occasion into perspective.

“Whether you medal or whether you don’t make the final, you set a new personal best, you have to look at every experience as a good one that you won’t regret.”

On the other end of the scale is 16-year-old Jaydon Page (Sebastian Kuzminski) who is set to make his Paralympic debut as the youngest member on the team in the 100m T47 - an achievement that he says is a “dream come true”.

“I never thought I was actually going to be a part of a green and gold representative team in my lifetime, so it was a bit of a shock, like wow I’ve done this and it’s a massive step forward in my life,” Page said.

The rising star has enjoyed his time at the staging camp in Cairns, saying Paralympic icons Evan O’Hanlon (Iryna Dvoskina) and Chad Perris (Iryna Dvoskina) have taken him under their wing - teaching him all things from tidiness to block starts and techniques.

Page says that his main goals at his Paralympic debut are to enjoy the moment and gain invaluable experience, as he hopes to be a “‘medal fighting chance” at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“It’s all experience for me right now. From understanding how the call room works and how the international hosts operate. I’ll get to see how the big boys operate so that I can get a feel for how to be a big boy myself,” Page said.

The Paralympic Athletics action is set to kick off on August 27.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted:  14/8/2021