Para Athletes Push for Greater Visibility
A number of leading Australian para athletes have expressed a desire to see their sports receive greater coverage leading into the 2032 Brisbane Paralympics.
Australian Para World Champion runner Jaryd Clifford penned an article this past week on website ‘Runner’s Tribe’ in the lead up to last Saturday night’s sold out Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.
In the article, Clifford pleaded with athletics organisers to not forget Para Athletes when scheduling their meets in prime time slots. He highlighted the fact with the two Para races scheduled for the Continental Gold standard Maurie Plant Meet - a men’s race featuring Australian Paralympic and World Champion James Turner, was scheduled at 5:48pm, while Paris medalist Mali Lovell and star Paralympic teammate Rhiannon Clarke would headline a women’s race immediately after at 5:56pm.
Clifford’s point was that the broadcast, both in Australia on 7Plus, and around the world, did not start until an hour later, meaning unless you were lucky to be one of 10,000 people in the stadium and took your seats early, there was no way of seeing these races. Clifford said:
“Including Paralympians during prime-time slots should be a no-brainer as Brisbane 2032 approaches. Our teammates in the pool competed at their Paralympic trials in races that alternated with their Olympic counterparts. They were front and centre on actual television, not hidden away. That’s why many of you will know the names of Alexa Leary, Col Pearse, and Scooter Patterson. Our sport should want that too and I know many people in our sport do want that, but we can’t keep waiting for tomorrow, it must be now.”
Indeed, despite already being a World Champion in 2023, Alexa Leary and her inspiring story, only became known to most Australians and media a year later when Para Swimming races were held on the same program as the Able Bodied Swimmers at the National Trials last year.
At one of last year’s Paris Paralympic team announcements, HER WAY spoke to the 2024 Australian Paralympics team Chef de Mission Kate McLoughlin about why having the swimmers in prime time was so important:
“I think it’s so important because it shows our athletes are just as able, just as elite, and deserving of the recognition of Australians… and also, so many young athletes with a disability aspiring to be Paralympians down the track.”
World Champion and triple Paralympic gold medal long jumper Vanessa Low also took to social media in the past week about the issue. In response to fielding questions about whether she would be competing at last weekend’s Maurie Plant Meet, Low said:
“… for those asking, no I’m not at Maurie Plant Meet as there is no event for me.
It’s disappointing for us para athletes in Australia facing such a lack of opportunity in our country, and honestly so hard to understand.”
Vanessa’s post included a video of herself competing, accompanied by the caption,
“My jumps from Paris had around 11 million views on my social media alone, so my assumption is that people actually do want to see it.”
During this past week, Australian national titles have taken place for both Rowing and Track Cycling. Both have integrated Para races in amongst Elite and Junior races, which to Australian Athletics’ credit, also regularly happens, and will once again be on show at next week’s Australian Open and Under 20 Championships in Perth.
One athlete who competed at the Cycling Nationals last week was Emily Petricola. The back-to-back Paralympic Champion and multiple World Champion shared with HER WAY last year in an episode of podcast HER WAY HER STORY that, while she has personally been well supported by the Victorian Institute of Sport during her career, that’s not every athlete’s experience, and there is lots of work to be done:
“I think that there needs to be a greater awareness, first of all systemically… around the value of Para athletes and how hard we have to work, and the expectations on us are exactly the same as for able bodied athletes.
That’s a very big change that needs to happen at the top level for that then to filter down.”
Clifford’s post has been shared by many in the Para athletics community over the past few days, including Lovell and Paralympic champion Madi de Rozario. The Tokyo gold medalist has previously shared with HER WAY about how Para athletes often train side-by-side with their Able Bodied counterparts. She shared her frustrations on the issue raised by Jaryd with her social media followers on Sunday,
“I stepped away from the track after Paris to focus solely on the marathon for a number of reasons, but this was certainly in the top two.”