Eliza Ault-Connell

Wheels on fire

It was a throwaway line from her daughter that put Eliza Ault-Connell back on track to Paralympic glory. The wheelchair racer, then 34, was watching the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games on TV with her children when one remarked, “So that’s what you used to do, Mum. Wow, you used to be so cool.” Eliza – whose identity as an elite athlete had been subsumed by her role as a mother since she started a family in 2008 with Paralympic gold medallist Kieran Ault-Connell – realised two fundamental truths: she could be both a mother and a competitor, and her daughter did not find her cool. Almost five years of intense training later, Eliza will be on the starting line in Tokyo for the 100m, 400m and marathon wheelchair events, watched on by her own cheer squad: Eva, 12, Elka, 10, and Jensen, nine. “As mothers, everything we do is for our children,” says Eliza, who had both legs amputated above the knee after contracting meningococcal disease as a teen. “What I have learned in recent years is that it is okay to have children and still want to do stuff for yourself.” When she hits the track in Tokyo, it will be 17 years since Eliza last represented Australia at a Paralympics. But despite her looming 40th birthday, she has no plans to retire – she has her eyes fixed on the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Eva, who also trains at the Australian Institute of Sport, suggested they work towards competing there as mother and daughter. “I thought to myself, ‘Dang, I will be old’,” laughs Eliza. “But I see no reason why we can’t.”