Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 with the exception of the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Paralympic Games have been contractually tied to the Olympic Games since 2001, however, they have taken place at the same venues since the 1988 Seoul Summer Games and the 1992 Albertville Winter Games.
In order to compete at the Paralympics, athletes must have an eligible impairment that leads to a permanent activity limitation, and athletes will compete in the classification appropriate to their impairment. These impairments are physical, vision and intellectual impairments.
Paralympics Australia, established in 1990, is responsible for selecting and preparing the Australian Paralympic Teams for both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. This committee assists with funding the athletes and competition in addition to talent identification.
Many of Australia's gold medals have come from Athletics, a sport which has been popular amongst Australian Paralympic athletes, such as Tim Sullivan and Louise Sauvage. The other sport from which many medals have come is Swimming.Australia has hosted the Paralympic Games on one occasion in 2000. Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales hosted the Summer Paralympics from 18 to 29 October 2000. There were 3879 participants from 123 countries across 19 sports and 550 events. Australia won the most medals with 149 overall.
Brisbane will host the 2032 Summer Paralympics.
History The Paralympic Games had their beginnings in the Stoke Mandeville Games, held at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, a spinal hospital in the United Kingdom. The first Games was in 1948, originally designed for patients of the hospital. The first Australian representative was 19 year old Charlene Todman, who had travelled to the hospital due to a lack of suitable care for spinal injuries in Australia at the time, competing in Archery at the 1951 games.
The annual Stoke Mandeville Games would stage their first event in a new host city in 1960, with Rome hosting the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games. The aim was to continue to host the annual games in Stoke Mandeville and every four years in a new host city, akin to the Summer Olympics, with the closing ceremony of the 1960 Summer Olympics also in Rome having occurred only six days earlier. Australia sent 12 representatives, with the team having to raise £10,000 to fund their travel. Representatives were also expected to compete in multiple events, with Ross Sutton who had been paralysed in a Tiger Moth crash two years earlier, earning Australia's first Gold Medal in Archery. Australia would leave with three Gold Medals.
Australia would send athletes to every subsequent Paralympic Games, including the 1976 Winter Paralympics, although due to the organisers only allowing amputees, blind or visually impaired athletes, Australia's only representative skier Ron Finneran was unable to compete due to childhood Polio having impaired a leg and arm. After arguing with Ludwig Guttmann, the head of the Paralympic movement, and almost coming to blows. Finneran carried the Australian flag at the opening ceremony and tested the courses before competition.
Australia hosted the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, topping the Medal tally for the first time with 63 golds and Brisbane is scheduled to host the 2032 Summer Paralympics.
Summer Games
Medal table
GamesGoldSilverBronzeTotalRankCompetitorsOfficialsFlag Bearer OpeningFlag Bearer Closing 1960 Rome 3 6 1 10 7 11 Kevin Betts 1964 Tokyo 12 11 7 30 4 17 9 Not a team member 1968 Tel-Aviv 15 16 7 38 4 35 18 1972 Heidelberg 6 9 10 25 11 37 Not a team member 1976 Toronto 16 18 7 41 11 46 Not a team member 1980 Arnhem 12 21 22 55 14 53 Not a team member 1984 Stoke Mandeville / New York 49 54 50 153 8 108 Carol Young and Paul Bird (NY)
Non team member (SM) 1988 Seoul 23 34 38 95 10 175 47 Paul Croft Rodney Nugent 1992 Barcelona and Madrid 37 37 34 108 5 134 Terry Giddy Priya Cooper 1996 Atlanta 42 37 27 106 2 161 Elizabeth Kosmala Priya Cooper 2000 Sydney 63 39 47 149 1 286 148 Brendan Burkett Neil Fuller 2004 Athens 26 39 36 101 5 152 Louise SauvageMatthew Cowdrey 2008 Beijing 23 29 27 79 5 161 122 Russell Short Matthew Cowdrey 2012 London 32 23 30 85 5 160 Greg Smith Evan O'Hanlon 2016 Rio 22 30 29 81 5176 Brad Ness Curtis McGrath 2020 Tokyo 2129 30 80 8 179 Ryley Batt & Daniela di Toro Ellie Cole 2024 Paris 18 17 27 62 9159 Madison de Rozario & Brenden Hall Lauren Parker & Total 420 449 429 1298
Medals by summer sport 1960–2024 Source:
Includes the Australia at the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap
Best results in non-medalling sports: Summer Sport Rank Athlete Event & Year Badminton 9th Grant Manzoney Men's singles WH2 in 2020 Football 5-a-side Did not participate Goalball 4th Australia men's team Men's tournament in 1996 Volleyball 8th Australia men's team Men's tournament in 2000
Winter Games
Medal table
GamesGoldSilverBronzeTotalRankCompetitorsOfficialsFlag Bearer OpeningFlag Bearer Closing 1976 Örnsköldsvik 0 0 0 0 - 0*1 Ron Finneran 1980 Geilo 0 0 0 0 - 2 1984 Innsbruck 0 0 0 0 - 3 1988 Innsbruck 0 0 0 0 - 5 1992 Tignes-Albertville 1 1 2 4 12 5 1994 Lillehammer 3 2 4 9 9 6 1998 Nagano 1 0 1 2 16 4 James Patterson 2002 Salt Lake City 6 1 0 7 8 6 Michael Milton Bart Bunting 2006 Turin 0 1 1 2 13 10 Michael Milton Toby Kane 2010 Vancouver 0 1 3 4 16 11 Toby Kane Cameron Rahles-Rahbula 2014 Sochi 0 0 2 2 19 7 Cameron Rahles-Rahbula Ben Tudhope 2018 PyeongChang 10 3 4 1515 Joany Badenhorst Melissa Perrine 2022 Beijing 00 1 1179 Melissa Perrine Mitchell Gourley Ben Tudhope 2026 Cortina 01 1 22114 Georgia Gunew Ben Tudhope Lauren Parker Sean Pollard Total 12 7 18 37 Notes:Ron Finneran attended and was expected to compete, carrying the flag during the opening ceremony, but due to the Paralympics lacking a limb impairment category other than amputee, he was excluded, and instead acted as an official at the games.
Medals by winter sport 1980–2026
Summary of Australia's involvement
1960 Summer Paralympics
Athlete, Daphne Hilton (Ceeney) was Australia's first ever swimmer who competed at the Rome 1960 Games. This games were the only Paralympic Games in which Australia did not win a gold medal in athletics.
1964 Summer Paralympics
With the games in Tokyo, Australia was able to send a large contingent of athletes as a result of the shorter than typical journey. Australia placed fourth with a total of 31 overall medals; 12 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 9 bronze medals.
1968 Summer Paralympics
Australia placed fourth again, with 38 overall medals; 15 gold, 16 silver and 7 bronze. Lorraine Dodd was an outstanding athlete at these games, setting three Swimming records for her class, all on the same day.
1972 Summer Paralympics Australian won 25 medals - 6 gold, 9 silver and 10 bronze medals in six sports. Australia finished 11th on the gold medal table and 9th on the total medal table. Elizabeth "Libby" Kosmala competed in her first Paralympics, and won a bronze medal in swimming in the Women's 3x50 m Medley Relay 2–4 event, and participated in other swimming and athletics events.
1976 Summer Paralympics The Olympic and Paralympic Games both aim to be apolitical; despite this, at the 1976 Paralympic Games, politics intruded into the games. Apartheid practices in South Africa brought controversy with the country's invitation to and inclusion in the games. Australian athlete, Eric Russell took a stance against politics at the Paralympic Games when he refused his gold medal in the class 3 discus event as a protest. He later accepted the medal from Dr Guttman after a press conference, explaining his position.
For the first time, television coverage of the Paralympics was broadcast daily to more than 600,000 viewers around the world.
1976 Winter Paralympics This Paralympic Games were the first Winter Paralympic Games. Australia was represented by one athlete, Ron Finneran; however, he was disqualified as his disability did not meet event classifications.
1980 Winter Paralympics This is the first Winter Paralympics that Australia competed in, but did not medal. Australia had two competitors, Kyrra Grunnsund and Peter Rickards, who participated in Slalom and Middle Distance Alpine Skiing respectively.
1980 Summer Paralympics It was the 6th Summer Paralympic game in which Australia competed. Australia won 55 medals – 12 gold, 21 silver and 22 bronze medals. Australia competed in 10 sports and won medals in 6 sports. It finished 14th on the gold medal table and 9th on the total medal table.
1984 Winter Paralympics Australia did not win a medal, but was strongly represented by Rodney Mills in cross-country and Kyrra Grunnsund and Andrew Temple in the alpine events of slalom, giant slalom and downhill.
1984 Summer Paralympics In 1984, Australia more than doubled its previous highest medal count with a tally of 154 medals. For the first time, four Cerebral Palsy athletes and one "Les Autres" athlete participated in the Games. Each won medals: Robert Walden (swimming) won four gold medals, Terry Biggs (table tennis) won a gold medal, Lyn Coleman (cycling) won silver medal and Malcom Chalmers (swimming) won a gold, silver and two bronze medals.
1988 Winter Paralympics Australia sent five athletes; however, failed to medal. These athletes were Michael Collins, Kyrra Grunnsund, Evan Hodge, Michael Milton and David Munk, who all competed in both men's downhill, men's giant slalom and men's slalom, except Munk who only competed in the latter two events.
1988 Summer Paralympics Australia competed in 16 events, achieving 23 gold medals in three sports, Athletics, Swimming and Lawn Bowls. Overall, Australia received 95 medals, 23 gold, 34 silver and 38 bronze. Australian athletes broke eight records during the Games.
1992 Winter Paralympics Australia's first ever gold medal at an Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games was won by Michael Milton when he won the LW2 Slalom event. There are no accurate results for the Australian Paralympic team performances at Winter Games previous to 1992; however, it is known that no-one medalled for Australia until the 1992 Paralympics.
1992 Summer Paralympics The ID Australian men's swimming team was totally dominant in Madrid, with Joseph Walker being the undoubted star winning nine gold medals (five individual, four relay) from all events that him competed and setting two world records.
1994 Winter Paralympics Australia's most successful Winter Paralympic Games remain the 1994 Winter Paralympic Games, when five athletes took the podium on 9 different occasions.
1996 Summer Paralympics Australia was ranked 2nd in the final medal table with 106 overall medals; 42 gold; 37 silver; 27 bronze. This success has been attributed to the introduction of the Australian Paralympic Committee's Paralympic Preparation Program. Australia's team was half that of the host nation who lead the final medal table.
In the Wheelchair Basketball match, Australia vs Great Britain, Troy Sachs recorded the highest number of individual points scored. Sachs scored 42 points in a single game for Australia at the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games, which remains the highest ever individual score by a basketballer at the Paralympic Games. He is also Australia's most awarded basketballer with two gold and one silver medal.
At the Atlanta Summer Paralympics, there was the largest athletics away gold medal haul to date of 19 Gold medals.
1998 Winter Paralympics Australia collected two medals, one gold and one bronze, from the 1998 Games after sending four competitors. James Patterson competed in Alpine Skiing, winning gold in the men's downhill and bronze in men's slalom.
2000 Summer Paralympics