Australia’s Paralympians are already plotting bigger and better things at Los Angeles and Brisbane after returning to great acclaim, including praise from the prime minister.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leader of the opposition Peter Dutton and governor general and Paralympic patron-in-chief Sam Mostyn were among the dignitaries present as many of the 161-person team returned to Sydney on Wednesday morning.
“You have done us proud,” Mr Albanese said.
“We’re proud as a nation of what you have achieved.”
Australia finished ninth on the medal table at the Paris Paralympics, with 63 in total spread across nine sports.
Alexa Leary, Callum Simpson and Tim Hodge each won two finals as part of a swim team which accounted for a bountiful haul of six gold and 27 medals overall.
Simpson, the youngest male member of the swim team, is excited about the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles and the ensuing 2032 Brisbane Games.
“I’m looking forward to have a home Games that I can work toward,” the 17-year-old Queenslander told AAP.
Hodge, who was competing at his third Paralympics, set a Games record while winning the 200m individual medley SM9.
“It’s going to be very hard to top this, but for the moment the focus is just trying to improve year after year,” Hodge said.
“Try and improve time-wise and hopefully the medals will come as a result of that.”
Hodge praised the selfless spirit of his team.
“The vibe amongst the whole team was incredible. We’re very, very happy with our results,” he told AAP.
“All the swimmers have worked really hard, we’ve worked together as a team, even though our events are individual events most of the time.
“Just supporting each other in the stands, it really makes a difference going out behind the blocks and being able to see the little pocket of Aussie athletes cheering you on at the finals.
“It’s just absolutely incredible and it really helped guys power through and win the amount of medals that we did.”
Athletics and cycling were other productive sports for Australia, with 11 medals won in each.
Lauren Parker’s victories in triathlon and cycling made her the first Australian Paralympian in 48 years to win gold in two different sports.
Long jump T63 gold medallist Vanessa Low set a new world record with her leap of 5.45m, and felt the distance might have been greater as she battled challenging windy conditions.
Low, who represented Germany at two Paralympics before switching her allegiance to Australia for the 2020 Games, believes she can crack the 6m barrier.
“The majority of jumps I was taking off from behind the board, so even those jumps were probably like 5.70, 5.80,” Low said.
“I think the last couple of weeks of training have really shown I’m still going in the trajectory of some really big improvements.”
