Aussie Cities to Hold Try Para Sport Days
This weekend is a chance for those with a disability to discover Para Sports.
This weekend, Disability Sports Australia and Paralympics Australia will be holding ‘Try Para Sports’ days in several cities across the country to give those with a disability the chance to discover and try a range of sports.
Days like these have been where many of the Australia’s current Paralympians first discovered the sports which set them on a path to elite careers. And with the number of Para sports constantly increasing, the opportunities for those with a disability to find a sport which suits them have never been greater.
There will be events run on Saturday 19th October in Sydney and Hobart, before hitting Brisbane on Sunday, and more cities in coming weeks. Current Paralympians will be on hand to share their experience and support. Among them will be Paris Boccia silver medallist Jamieson Leeson, who will be present at the Sydney event, just up the road at Sydney Olympic Park from where the successful Australian Boccia team train.
Having grown up in a very small town, Jamieson relocated to Sydney earlier this year to make training with the rest of the squad easier. Jam told HER WAY last year how being able to introduce others to Para sports who may not otherwise discover them, is something she’s passionate about:
“There’s no real opportunities in regional NSW for people with such physical disabilities to participate in sport, so that’s something I want to change in the future.”
Some of today’s current Paralympians grew up without the exposure to sports like the ones Disability Sports Australia and Paralympics Australia are putting on this weekend.
Paris Wheelchair Rugby bronze medallist Ella Sabljak, who initially took up wheelchair basketball (where she also represented Australia), found out about that sport as a result of a hospital visit when she was young. Until then, the self proclaimed ‘not sporty’ Sabljak could only play sport at school, which came with issues, as she told HER WAY:
I didn’t know there were options for me. I always hated P.E because it wasn’t adaptive. I couldn’t run and couldn’t do what the other kids were doing, so it was hard to want to love sport.
The two hour trip across Melbourne to discover wheelchair sport changed everything for Ella, recalling, “When I went to basketball, I saw what sport did for people with a disability. You develop friendships, you develop your sense of identity through sport and that community.”
Georgia Beikoff, who is currently preparing for the Para Matildas trip to next month’s World Cup, initially took up athletics as a teenager with a bit of a nudge from her mother, and for the first time found likeminded people:
“When I was 14 or 15 I was invited to my very first athletics camp in Queensland… I don’t know how mum got me on that plane, but it was amazing. I met this one girl - we were born five days apart. We were exchanging stories like, ‘do you find this hard? Oh yeah!’
It was the first time where I was like, yes - this is my place, this is where I belong.”
Two time Paralympic rower Al Viney, who was recently one of the Para Athletes given the opportunity to take part in the car parade on the MCG for AFL Grand Final Day, echoed the thoughts of others about how the powerful role sport can play in the life of someone with a disability:
“It’s given me confidence, it’s given me strength, it’s given me direction, and it’s also given me new families and people to meet, and it’s the happiest that I’ve been in my whole life.”
Upcoming ‘Try Para Sport’ Days:
October 19 - NSW, Tasmania
October 20 - Queensland
October 26 - Northern Territory
October 27 - Victoria, Western Australia
November 2 - ACT
It’s free to attend the days, you just need to register.
Visit ticketing.humanitix.com for more information and to confirm a place.