MEET OUR PARALYMPIANS GOING FOR GOLD
OUR PARALYMPIANS PREPARE FOR TOKYO
RIO gold medallist and Garden City product Katie Kelly (right) and her guide Briarna Silk are ready for the Tokyo Paralympic Games. Kelly, a former St Ursula’s College student, is one of several Toowoomba athletes going for gold.
BY THE time Corey Anderson leaves the Tokyo Olympics athlete village – his mother will know it almost as well as him.
Melissa Anderson has been in contact with Corey, who has cerebral palsy, every day since he landed in Tokyo ahead of his Paralympics debut later this week. “I’ve spoken to him every night since he arrived and have been in contact through social media during the day,” Melissa said.
“When he can he’s shown us some of the sights when we facetime, it’s almost eerily quiet in the athlete village, it’s a bit of a ghost town.
“They’re not allowed to interact with anyone and have to wear a mask whenever they are outside.
“He’s in good spirits though.
“He’s been training every day since he arrived and is feeling fine.”
As the reigning Men’s F38 Javelin world champion, after winning gold at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, Corey will head into Friday’s final as a medal favourite.
“I think he just wants to throw now,” Melissa said.
“He’s been competing since he was 11 and training for this event specifically for basically the last two years.
“It’s been emotionally and physically taxing and he, like every athlete, has put a lot of pressure on himself.
“The big thing for us is letting him know there is no expectation from us.
“There’s still the normality of life when he comes back. “What he and all the Paralympians are doing is phenomenal in itself and we will love him all the same regardless of his results.”
IN ACTION: Men’s F38 Javelin. August 27, 12.06pm
JANINE WATSON
Chinchilla’s Janine Watson will be part of Australia’s inaugural taekwondo team at the Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Watson, who has multiple sclerosis, will join Dylan Alcott and AJ Jennings in the Aussie squad as the martial art makes its games debut. The now 40-year-old attended primary and high school in Chinchilla before venturing to the Gold Coast to study at Griffith University.
She returned after completing her tertiary studies and taught at Chinchilla High School for nine years.
Her life however took an unexpected turn after Ms Watson was diagnosed with MS at the age of 25.
“I started to have visual disturbances, where anytime I was exercising or in the heat, I’d get blurry vision, and then double vision, before losing my sight completely,” she said.
“I used to be a goalkeeper for the Chinchilla Honeybears soccer team, and because of my sight I would have two soccer balls coming at me at once.
“This happened for about six months, and I always thought I had sweat in my contact lenses, until I lost my sight completely, then I knew something was wrong.”
A series of trips to Toowoomba and Brisbane led to Watson discovering she had MS.
Watson found her way into taekwondo after receiving encouragement from her gymnastics coach in Chinchilla.
IN ACTION: Women’s K44 taekwondo. September 4, 11am
KATIE KELLY
The former St Ursula’s College student will be eager to defend her 2016 Rio Parlaympics gold in Tokyo.
After being diagnosed as legally blind in January 2015, Kelly made contact with the Australian Paralympic Committee to discuss her paratriathlon eligibility and just a month later was classified as a vision impaired (PT5) paratriathlete.
Two-time International Triathlon Union (ITU) world champion, Michellie Jones joined Kelly as her race guide in Rio.
IN ACTION: Women’s Paratriathlon Vision Impaired. August 28, 9.31am.
SAM CARTER
The Toowoomba wheelchair racer will become a dual Paralympian in Tokyo.
Carter, who was born with spina bifida, is a former junior world champion and began wheelchair racing at the age of 10.
The 2015 men’s 100m wheelchair IPC Grand Prix gold medal winner will compete in his second Paralympic Games after representing Australia at Rio 2016.
IN ACTION: Men’s 100m T54. September 1, 12.43pm.