Dan Ninham
Special to ICT
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8, featuring as many as 4,400 athletes from around the world. They will compete in 22 sports across various iconic venues in Paris, including the Eiffel Tower, the Chateau de Versailles and the Grand Palais.
There are eight Paralympians who have been identified as Indigenous. National Paralympic committees don’t track their Indigenous athletes or coaches, so it is a challenge to find them.
Team USA: Kaleo Kanahele Maclay
Kaleo Kanahele Maclay began training with the U.S. Paralympic Sitting Volleyball team in 2009 at 12 years old. She started playing standing volleyball when she was nine years old for Oklahoma Peak Performance 12s team.
She was born with a club foot and had a tenotomy at nine months old that placed pins through the toe and heel bones and left Kaleo with limited calf flexibility and muscle.
She competed at the 2017 World ParaVolley World Super 6 while pregnant.
She is a three-time Paralympian and three-time Paralympic medalist with two gold and one silver. She participated in the Paralympic Games Tokyo in 2020, earning gold, Paralympic Games Rio de Janeiro 2016 earning gold, the Paralympic Games London 2012 earning silver, and the 2022 World Championships earning bronze.
Kaleo wears her maiden name “Kanahele” on her jersey, a nod to her Hawaiian heritage. In sitting volleyball, she continues to be a giant on the court.
On May 5, Kaleo expressed her confidence to Fox21 News Colorado: “I hope my platform is seen by younger girls and younger girls with disabilities and like this concept of invisible disabilities, so disabilities that others might not see.
“I just feel so like myself. Like I’m in control,” Kaleo said when asked about how she feels on the court. “I feel so free.”
Kaleo began playing with the sitting national team in 2009 and ascended quickly, winning Best Setter at the 2014 and 2018 ParaVolley World Championships, as well as 2014 USA Volleyball Female Sitting Player of the Year. At the 2020 Tokyo Games, Maclay was named Best Setter while playing pregnant.
On July 11 on her Facebook page, Kaleo wrote: “One step closer to being a 4x Paralympian. I remember the first time I got the call that I made my very first Paralympic Roster in 2012, I was 16 in the car with my mom when I got the call – I was crying and screaming with excitement!
“Fast forward to yesterday, I was in my car once again on the phone with my coach telling me that I had made the Paris Paralympic Roster. I was crying with gratitude and just proud of how far I’ve come even since Tokyo! I said to Bill ‘thank you for the chance to get to do this with you again’ and I mean that! … I can’t wait for the opportunity to fight like hell for all we’ve worked for and for the USA! PARIS, HERE WE COME!!”
Kaleo has a steady following of support and she was featured on videos since the Tokyo 2021 Paralympics: ”My Path to the Podium” and “The Heart of the Golden Squad/Who I Am.”
On July 10, 2024, USA Volleyball announced the team and Paris 2024 Paralympic schedule.
The U.S. Women’s Sitting Team has medaled at every Paralympics since 2004. Prior to winning gold in Tokyo (2020), the team won its first gold in Rio de Janeiro (2016), and also won silver medals in London (2012) and Beijing (2008) and bronze in Athens (2004).
The 2024 Paralympic sitting competition consists of two pools of four teams each. The U.S. Women are in Pool A with China, France and Italy. Pool B consists of Canada, Brazil, Rwanda and Slovenia.
The U.S. Women open the Paralympics against China in the first match. The two teams have met in the last four Paralympic finals. Most recently, the U.S. Women defeated China twice at the World ParaVolley Super 6 in June.
The Paralympic Opening Ceremony will be held Aug. 28 with the sitting volleyball competition running Aug. 30-Sept. 7.
U.S. Women’s Schedule for the 2024 Paralympic Games:
Aug. 30: USA vs. China, 12 p.m. Paris time/3 a.m. Pacific time
Sept. 1: USA vs. France, 8 p.m. Paris time/11 a.m. Pacific time
Sept. 3: USA vs. Italy, 2 p.m. Paris time/5 a.m. Pacific time
Sept. 4: Classification matches for 5th/6th and 7th/8th places
Sept. 5: Semifinals
Sept. 7: Medal matches
Team New Zealand: Cameron Leslie
Cameron Leslie, Ngāpuhi, is the world record holder and three-time Paralympic gold medallist in the Men’s Individual Medley 150m SM4, according to his New Zealand Paralympics profile.
Cameron earned a gold medal and a world record at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. The New Zealand Paralympic Team secured 21 medals across 12 individual medallists, including nine gold, five silver and seven bronze.
He withdrew from Tokyo 2020 since his second child was due.
He broke his own world record in the 2022 World Championships. Also in 2022, he won a gold and three silver medals at the World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira. He also set a new set a new world record and had four medals in the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships.
Cameron started training twice a week in wheelchair rugby with the Auckland team before advancing to the Wheel Blacks.
Cameron is the Disability and Para Swimming Participation manager for Swimming New Zealand. He supports 172 clubs to foster, develop and grow Para swimming to ensure a continuous stream of Para swimmers achieving on the world stage.
One of the two official flag bearers for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, he will compete at his fourth Paralympic Games in Paris.
Team New Zealand: Holly Robinson
According to her New Zealand Paralympics profile, at the age of ten Holly Robinson was selected in a Talent Identification programme and attended her first overseas competition when she was 12.
Holly, Ngāi Tahu, Kai Tahu, won a silver and bronze at the London 2012 Paralympics and, respectively, at the 2013 and 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships (now known as the Para Athletics World Championships).
Holly was a silver medallist in Women’s Javelin F46 at the London 2017 World Para Athletics Championships. At Holly’s second Paralympic Games in Rio 2016, she won silver in the Women’s Javelin F46.
Her silver medal throw contributed to the New Zealand Paralympic Team’s stunning 21 medals across 12 individual medallists in 2016, including nine gold, five silver and seven bronze.
Following Rio 2016, Holly maintained her silver medal-winning streak in the women’s javelin F46 climbing the second rung of the podium at the 2017 and 2019 World Para Athletics Championships and Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
In March 2021, Holly wrote herself into the record books when she became the first Para athlete to win a medal in an open event at the New Zealand Track & Field Championships, taking silver in the women’s javelin.
She carried this form through to the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games where she won gold in the thrilling Women’s Javelin F46 final. Sitting in third place on a rainy night with one throw to go, Holly threw 40.99m to claim the gold medal.
Holly was the global winner of the Visa Award for her moment of gratitude at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Her act of thanking the officials following her victory in the Women’s Javelin F46 captured the admiration of fans as they showed their support by voting.
At the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships, Holly earned silver medal in the F46 shot put with an Oceania record throw of 11.59m. This was Holly’s first time competing in shot put at a World Para Athletics Championships since finishing seventh in the 2011 edition in Christchurch.
Holly’s ultimate goal is to be the best in the world.
She was appointed Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours in 2022. Holly was named a Harvey Norman Para Sport Champion in 2024. At the Kobe 2024 Para Athletics World Championships, Holly bettered her national record with an impressive throw of 12.25m to take silver in the women’s shot F46. Holly competes in the women’s shot F46 and women’s javelin F46 at Paris 2024 in what will be her fourth appearance at the Paralympic Games.
Team New Zealand: Peter Cowan
Para athlete Peter Cowan, Ngāti Kahungunu, competes in an adaptive version of waka ama, known internationally as Para va’a, which is a division of Para canoe at the Paralympic Games.
Peter competes in the VL3 classification. At age 15, Peter was training on his bike for the IronMāori triathlon when he was clipped by an oncoming car. After the serious accident, Peter later made the difficult decision to amputate his injured leg.
In his last year of high school, he discovered paddling and soon fell in love with the sport. Peter won two golds and a silver in the World Waka Ama Championships, and also placed fourth in the 2018 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.
At the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint and Para Canoe World Championships, Peter placed eighth in the VL3 event. In the 2023 World Championships in Germany, Peter showed his potential to be at the pointy end of the field, finishing ninth in his VL3 200m event in one of the tightest finals of the competition.
In May 2024, Peter achieved a silver medal in the va’a at the ICF Paracanoe World Championships in Szeged – a remarkable milestone in his paddling career. In the thrilling VL3 200m final, Cowan finished just 0.071 seconds behind Ukraine’s Vladyslav Yepifanov.
In June 2024, Peter was selected to the New Zealand Paralympic Team headed to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Team New Zealand: Joshua Willmer
Para swimmer Joshua Willmer, Tainui, hopes to maintain his progress after establishing a proud international record in recent years.
A left-arm amputee below the elbow, Joshua grew up in Kawakawa Bay in South Auckland and first engaged with swimming lessons from the age of three.
A member of the Pukekohe Swim Club, he is a training partner of Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games Women’s 100m Backstroke S8 Tupou Neiufi.
He finished sixth in the 100m Breaststroke SB6 at the 2022 World Para Swimming Championships in Madeira, Portugal. He won gold in his specialist event at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
He was a finalist for the Sky Sport Emerging Talent Award at the 2022 Halberg Awards.
He finished sixth in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB8 event, setting a New Zealand record mark at the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships.
Team New Zealand: Tupou Neiufi
Tupou Neiufi, Tongan, was hit by a speeding car when she was just two years old, which resulted in a left-sided hemiplegia, meaning she has paralysis on the left side of her body.
Tupou was first identified by Paralympics New Zealand in 2011 as part of the Para Swimming Talent Identification programme.
Tupou was selected to the New Zealand Paralympic Team for Rio 2016. She placed seventh in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S9. Tupou placed sixth in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S9 at the 2028 Commonwealth Games and a year later, she claimed a World Para Swimming Championship silver medal in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S8.
Tupou won New Zealand’s first gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in the Women’s 100m Backstroke S8.
Team Australia: Amanda Reid
Amanda Reid is a two-time Paralympian and proud Indigenous woman whose career started in the swimming pool.
At the 2011 Global Games, she claimed a remarkable seven gold medals before winning two silver and three bronze medals at the 2011 Arafura Games. She placed fifth in the 100m breaststroke at the London 2012 Paralympics.
In 2015, Amanda went back to cycling and she broke the national C2 Individual Time Trial record at the New South Wales Para-cycling Championships and then smashed the national record in the 3km individual pursuit at the 2016 Australian Para-cycling Championships.
Amanda, who has cerebral palsy and an intellectual impairment, established herself on the world stage with silver in the 500m time trial at the 2016 Para Track World Championships, leading to her selection in the 2016 Australian Paralympic Games Team.
At Rio, she won a silver medal in the 500m time trial combined classification C1-C2-C3. Since Rio, Amanda’s success has continued, most notably breaking the world record at the 2019 Para Track World Championships.
At the Tokyo 2020 Games, Amanda not only achieved both of these goals, but she also made history by becoming the first Indigenous Australian to win a Paralympic gold medal in cycling.
She rode a world record-breaking factored time of 35.581 in the women’s 500m time trial C1-3 to become a Paralympic champion.
Amanda is immensely proud of her Indigenous heritage, stemming from the Wemba Wemba and Guring-gai Aboriginal people.
Team Australia: Samantha Schmidt
Samantha Schmidt trains under Ralph Newton, training and competing in javelin, shot put and discus.
At the 2021 Sydney Track Classic, Samantha threw a 33.66m to set a new personal best and Oceanian F38 record, securing her spot on the Australian Tokyo 2020 Team.
At her Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, she finished sixth in the Discus throw F38 with a throw of 30.26m. Samantha is a proud Wakawaka and Gubbi Gubbi Indigenous woman.
Team Australia: Ruby Storm
Ruby Storm is an S14 swimmer who earned a bronze medal in the mixed 4x100m freestyle S14 at the 2019 World Para-swimming Championships.
At the World Championships, she raced in the freestyle relay, 100m butterfly S14, 100m breaststroke SB14, 200m freestyle S14 and 200m individual medley SM14. She placed fifth in the fly final.
She won a pair of bronze medals in the 2020 World Para-swimming World Series in Melbourne.
Ruby competed in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and earned a silver and bronze medal. She won the silver medal in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay S14, and she also claimed the bronze in the women’s 100m Butterfly S14. She placed eighth in the 100m backstroke S14 and seventh in the 200m medley.
Team Australia: Telaya Blacksmith
At 14 years old, Telaya Blacksmith was selected to represent Australia at the 2022 Virtus Oceania Asia Games in Brisbane. At 15, she represented Australia at the 2023 Virtus Global Games in Vichy, France, and now at the age of 16, Telaya will become a Paralympian when she competes at the 2024 Paris Paralympics in the sport of athletics.
A proud Walpiri woman from the Northern Territory, Telaya now lives in Sydney where she attends Endeavour High School, a sports-focused school with a proud history of developing Olympians and now Paralympians with Telaya being their first Paralympian.
Telaya has won medals during the past few years at the National Championships and the Virtus Oceania Asia Games. She currently holds the Australian under 15, under 17 and under 20 T20 records in the 100m, 200m and long jump, and in her Paralympic event, the 400m, she holds the under 17, under 20 and open T20 records.
Telaya’s Paralympic schedule is:
Sept. 2: 400m heats
Sept. 3: 400m Final
Sept. 6: Long Jump Final
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