Good evening!

Welcome to the first edition of our Paris 2024 Paralympic newsletter. Below you’ll find a schedule with the top Aussie moments to look out for in the next 24 hours.

I can’t wait to see our Paralympians hit the pool and the Steelers (Australia’s wheelchair rugby team) take on our age-old rival Great Britain tonight.

And the U.S. Open? The good news… Alexei Popyrin advanced to the third round after winning in straight sets. The bad news…He’s now set to play Novak Djokovic at a grand slam for the third time this year!

Paris ‘24: Tonight’s top moments

Thursday 29th August (All times are in AEST)

🏊‍♂️ 5:30pm: Para-Swimming (Heats)
Alexa Leary, Jasmine Greenwood, and Keira Stephens will race in the Women’s 50m Freestyle S10. Defending champion Rowan Crothers and Thomas Gallagher will race in the men’s 50m freestyle S10. Six-time medallist Brenden Hall will compete alongside fellow Aussie Tim Hodge in the Men’s 400m Freestyle S9. Seven-time medallist Lakeisha Patterson will race the Women’s 400m Freestyle S9. Ben Hance will race the Men’s 100m Butterfly S14. Ruby Storm and Paige Leonhardt will race in the Women’s 100m Butterfly S14. The start times for the finals are listed below.

🏉 7:30pm: Wheelchair Rugby, Australia v Great Britain (Group Game)
In the game originally called murderball, the Australian Steelers will take on old rival Great Britain. Team GB are the defending Olympic champions in this event, while the Steelers won the 2023 wheelchair Rugby World Cup and were gold medallists in Rio.

🚴‍♀️ 9:41pm: Para Track Cycling, Men’s B 4000m Individual Pursuit (Qualifying)
Kane Perris, who is legally blind, missed out on the Tokyo Paralympics due to a crash that forced him to stop cycling for  12 months. He will now make his Paralympic debut in Paris.

🏐 10:00pm: Boccia, Men’s Individual BC3 (Preliminary Round)
Daniel Michel is the current world champion and a great shot at a medal. Boccia is a precision ball sport similar to lawn bowls or bocce. Jamieson Lesson will compete in the Women’s BC3 preliminary round at 4:30am.

Friday 30th August

🏹 1:00am: Para Archery, Men’s Individual Compound (Ranking Round)
Jonathan Milne and Patrick French are the two Aussies who will shoot to see where they stand amongst the competition in this ranking round. Milne won bronze in this event in Rio.

🏹 1:00am: Para Archery, Women’s Individual Recurve (Ranking Round)
Amanda Jennings is the sole Aussie in this event.

🏓 1:00am: Para Table Tennis, Mixed Doubles XD7 and XD17
(Rounds of 32 and 16)
Two Aussie pairings (Daniela Di Toro and Jessy Chen, Hayley Sands and Christopher Addis) will compete in the Mixed Doubles XD7 Round of 32.  Melissa Tapper and Trevor Hirth will compete in the Mixed Doubles XD17 Round of 32. Nathan Pellissier and Li Na Lei will compete in the Mixed Doubles XD17 Round of 16 at 3:15am.

🏊‍♂️ 1:30am: Para-Swimming, (Finals 🥇)
Depending on how the Aussies go in the morning session this will be the first opportunity for medals in the pool.

🏀 5:30am: Men’s Wheelchair Basketball, Australia v Netherlands
(Group Game)
The Australian Rollers kick off their Paris 2024 campaign against the Netherlands. They won 18 of 21 matches in 2023 and are looking for their first medal since 2012.

I’ve got 30 seconds…

In case you missed it…

🎾 Alexei Popyrin led the Australian charge at the U.S. Open on Day three, beating Spain’s Pedro Martínez in straight sets (6-2, 6-4, 6-0) to set up a third-round showdown against Novak Djokovic. The other Australians in action, who all lost their second-round matches, were Rinky Hijikata, Ajla Tomljanović, and Maya Joint. Ninth seed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov was simply too good for Hijikata and won in straight sets  (6-1, 6-1, 7-6). Ajla Tomljanović was also beaten in straight sets by former world no.35 Elise Mertens (6-3, 6-2). Finally, 18-year-old Maya Joint’s dream run came to an end against 14th seed Madison Keys of the U.S. (6-4, 6-0). Joint’s ranking is expected to rise to world no.108 after she made her way through qualifying last week and won her first-ever match at a slam.

🚴‍♂️ Ben O’Connor has retained the leader’s jersey at La Vuelta a España after Stage 11 but lost nearly 40 seconds of valuable time to Slovenian rival Primož Roglič. O’Connor’s overall lead now stands at 3 minutes and 16 seconds. The winner of the stage was Irish rider Eddie Dunbar, who sprinted from the breakaway group a kilometre from the line.

⚽ Matildas player Aivi Luik revealed that she pulled out of the Paris Olympic trials after being made to serve a 3-month ban for violating anti-doping regulations. Luik received a cortisone (steroid) injection for a back injury while playing for Italian club Pomigliano. A tribunal ruled that while Luik did not intend to enhance her performance, she had been negligent.

🏀 Lebron James’ high school jersey is being sold at an auction next month. The St. Vincent-St. Mary jersey was worn by the basketballer on his first ever Sports Illustrated cover in 2002. The headline read ‘Chosen One’. The jersey last sold for $US512,000 in 2021.

Paris ‘24: What we’re talking about

Paralympics kick off in Paris with a memorable opening ceremony

The Paralympics Opening ceremony took place on the iconic Champs Élysées and the Place de la Concorde in the heart of Paris this morning (AEST). It was the first Paralympic Opening Ceremony to be held outside of a stadium. Unlike the Olympic Opening Ceremony, the weather was warm and cloudless. 

The ceremony began on the streets of Paris but made its way to the Place de la Concorde where 50,000 ticketed spectators celebrated the beginning of the 17th edition of the Summer Paralympics.

To conclude the ceremony, the Paralympic Cauldron was lit by five French athletes in the Jardin du Tuileries.

Australia

Australia, one of the 168 delegations represented at the opening ceremony, were led by Aussie Paralympic veterans and flag bearers Brenden Hall (swimming) and Madison de Rozario (track and field) who are both at their fifth Games. 

What they said:

Paris 2024 president Tony Estanguet said: "Dear athletes, welcome to the country of love and revolution. Rest assured, tonight, no Storming of the Bastille, no guillotine, because tonight the most beautiful revolution starts — the Paralympic revolution,"

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How major sporting events are trying to attract Gen Z audiences

According to the a recent study, Gen Z are more likely to tune into Netflix and TikTok over live sports. Though it remains important, Gen Z watches a lot less sport compared to older generations, like Boomers.

Deakin’s Dr. Josh McLeod highlights how Gen Z’s ‘digital nativity’ influences their sports consumption, with young people preferring online or shorter format content and to follow individual athletes over teams.

Major sporting organisations like the Olympics have tried to combat this by appealing to young audiences – partly through the appeal of celebrities and influencers.

“Snoop Dogg at the Olympics is a perfect illustration of the buzz and interest that he can create and bring into sport,” Dr. McLeod says.

There’s also the inclusion of new events, like Breaking, Bouldering and Skateboarding.

“Skateboarding is a sport that is played and performed by young people,” Dr. McLeod says. “The Australian gold medalist is a perfect illustration of that – the people who are performing at the highest level in Skateboarding are very young, and that's leading to young people watching those sports, too.”

Who knows what the 2080 Olympics will look like?

Think beyond the field. Study sport at Deakin.

Looking forward…(All times are AEST)

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