Women of Steel Set for Paris
Women of Steel Set for Paris
The Australian Steelers Wheelchair Rugby side has a record number of women in their team for Paris, and they aren’t simply there to make up the numbers.
At the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo, the Australian Steelers Wheelchair Rugby team featured just one female athlete in the squad - Shae Graham - the first woman to represent the national team. Fast forward three years, and when the Steelers take to the court in Paris, Shae will again represent the green and gold, but will this time have two other women in the side with her, in former wheelchair basketball star Ella Sabljak and Para Cycling World Champion Emilie Miller.
All three have been in the national team since 2022, and were part of the squad which won the World Championship that same year. The number of female and non-binary players in the sport at an international level is growing, and that is being reflected within state league teams as well, with more than half of teams during the 2024 National Championships having at least one non-male player.
Ben Newton, a Paralympic gold medallist for the Steelers at the 2012 London Paralympics, is now a Development and Assistant Coach with the Steelers, as well as coaching elite teams in Queensland.
HER WAY chatted to Ben to ask about the rise of female athletes in the sport, and asked him about the three women in the Paris team;
“Every single one of them has worked just as hard as anybody else, and they’ve all earned their selection. The fact that we’ve got three women in the team for Paris speaks volumes for how much women can bring to our sport.
Ella, coming from wheelchair basketball and with her impairment type, is really agile and she’s got really great court sense. She’s an absolute weapon as spreading the court and finding those angles to get those really tight passes.
Shae has been around for a bit longer and is a bit more experienced in rugby. She is fast and strong, and then Emilie can just push all day. She’s learning so much about what her role is , and coming from an individual sport it’s probably taken her a bit longer to understand what her role is, but she wouldn’t be in the team if she did t deserve it.”
HER WAY asked Ben, who still plays sometimes with the Bond University team in the National League, what the female/non-binary players bring to the sport;
“You know they’re just going to go and go and go and not give an inch. They’re going to work even harder because they feel like they’ve got something to prove. I hate going up against them to be honest, they just work really hard…it’s unreal. The women all bring a real diverse perspective about sport and what it means to be an athlete. It’s fantastic for the culture of the Steelers.”
Ben was part of the Steelers coaching squad for an Australian Steelers Development squad which played in New Zealand in late 2023. During that series, for the first time in an international game, the Steelers had an entire female and non-binary take to the court. I asked Ben about that moment.
“I’ve been around wheelchair rugby for 20 years and that was one of the coolest moments, because it just shows how much our sport is opening up, how much more diverse and inclusive it’s becoming, and how much more professional it’s becoming as well.”
Aside from the growth of female participants being a win for inclusion, the nature of how the sport works with the different athletes attracting various points allocations, means there are other benefits for filling a team with female players, as Ben explained;
Tactically as well, the way the rules work with female players, it’s a big advantage. If you can get the right combination of athletes together on the court at the same time, it can be a huge advantage.”
Australian viewers have the chance to see behind the scenes of the Steelers’ path to Paris, with the premiere of a ground-breaking documentary tonight.
Forged In Steel takes viewers behind closed doors as the Steelers deal with raw emotions, intense competition and personal sacrifices to fight for their Paralympic dreams. Produced by Nine’s Wide World Of Sport in partnership with Paralympics Australia and Good Shout, Forged In Steel is more than just a sports documentary—it’s a powerful story of resilience, determination and the relentless pursuit of excellence.
Paralympics Australia Chief Executive Cameron Murray said the documentary is an unmissable event for sports fans and all Australians who appreciate compelling human stories.
“This is a wonderful, captivating piece of film-making. I am so excited for Australian audiences to watch, to enjoy and to learn from the stories of our Steelers.
While it certainly captures the power of Paralympic sport, what it emphasises to me most is that the Paralympic movement is about so much more than victory and defeat – it is about showcasing the best of humanity.”
With access to Paralympics Australia’s archives dating back to the Steelers’ early years, the documentary focuses on their battle for redemption after the bitter disappointment of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games where they failed to win a medal for the first time since 2004.
Producers followed the team to major events across both hemispheres including the 2022 World Championships and Paralympic qualification tournaments in 2023 and 2024 where the stakes had never been higher.
Audiences will be taken inside the meeting rooms where coaches deliver life-changing news to athletes about their place on the Australian team for Paris 2024. The documentary also highlights the sport’s unique features, including its mixed-gender teams—a fact not widely known, despite Australia boasting more female athletes than most other leading nations in the sport.
So just how far can the Steelers go in Paris? Unfortunately due to team limitations, Ben Newton will be providing his assistance to the coaching group from back home in Australia, but he is cautiously optimistic in this fiercely fought sport;
“There’s probably seven teams out of the eight realistically that could win gold. The sport as a whole is much more competitive at the top level, but we’re the reigning World Champions and reigning World Cup champions as well. If the team can put it all together over in Paris they can beat anybody.”
Forged In Steel premieres at 9:40pm Monday 19th August on the Nine Network and 9NOW.
You can learn more about Ella Sabljak’s life and sporting career in an episode of HER WAY HER STORY in the Podcast section archives.