Breaking Disability Ep. 2 - Ryley Batt OAM

Introduction my name is murray alborn i'm your host of the breaking disability podcast live proudly presented to you by ndsp national referral hub coloplast and variety the children's charity today you'll hear from another great star of disability sports so tune in enjoy the podcast Ryleys Origin Story hello everyone i'm here with uh paralympic legend riley batts uh captain of the paralympic team uh from tokyo and uh obviously we all chair rugby um thanks so much for joining us riley really good to have you here today thanks for having me murray i'm glad to be here mate excellent look um i think we want to talk about firstly the origination of your journey um into paris sport what was your first kind of recollection of uh turning up to paralympic sport yeah look my first time i guess being involved in paralympic sport was uh back in uh grade six and for me at the time i wasn't using a wheelchair i was born my disability but i wasn't using a wheelchair i was using a skateboard to get around because that was the way i i fitted in and i thought um you know at the time i thought people in wheelchairs were disabled and i didn't want to jump in a wheelchair how totally wrong i was so i remember going to this school sport of wheelchair rugby um held where i live in my hometown of port macquarie and i watched all my everybody friends jump in these wheelchair rugby chairs and bash into each other and have the best time of their life and i sat on the sideline for a few weeks and and and just did not want to get involved um turns out a few things happened one of my my skateboard got stolen and that was my motor transport and something just kicked in my head in that day and i went you know what riley let's overcome this sort of kryptonite this this um fear of this wheelchair and let's have a go and for the first time in my life when i jumped in this wheelchair rugby chair i felt like i was on the same level playing field as all my friends and you know there were so many times on the school oval that i'd try to play soccer football cricket all those kind of sports and i absolutely loved it and i loved to be competitive but i was just always left behind so this was an amazing feeling for me and i sort of had a little bit over my friends as well where i had a little bit more upper body strength at the time where because i was using a skateboard to and using my arms to propel myself on the ground so uh it was pretty cool to jump in that wheelchair rugby chair and zoom around past my friends and and run into them so i remember that moment vividly and it's a moment that i'm very very glad i got involved in Being a Country Boy it's interesting that you talk about that and obviously look being a country boy uh in paul macquarie um you know it's uh you're away from that a lot right and so it's a specific culture and you're in different environment and there's maybe not a lot of supports for you and your family in a regional town can you tell us a little bit about that yeah look obviously for me growing up i i guess i didn't see any other sort of disability sports it was not a normality for me probably being the person i was i i didn't really want to get involved in disability sports at the time as well growing up um i remember my parents tried to get me a wheelchair when i was about eight years old and i said to them you can get me a wheelchair but there's no chance i'm going to use it i wish i was sort of shown wheelchair sports showing paralytic sports when i was growing up it would uh you know it would have gave me i guess a bit of a head start into wheelchair rugby and you know i now look at the paralympic sport i now look at um you know any any sport with a disability and i love to see that paralympians are looked up to as sort of role model as idols from kids with disabilities with kids with no disabilities just able-bodied kids are looking up to paralympians as idols so it's an amazing world we live in at the moment australia really captivates um and sort of understands people with disabilities and they understand they understand the politics and they really get behind it so uh yeah living regionally i was a bit sort of hidden from uh paralympic sports or disability sports but uh it's growing and it's an awesome time to be a paralympian uh i echo your thoughts mate obviously the outstanding coverage from channel 7 Message to Parents in tokyo and the ability for people to watch whatever they wanted on sevenplus at any given time really changed the game and i think um you know going back what's your message to parents you know who are with you and that for that matter kids and adults in that space who've always thought oh i'm not sporty you know i don't want to play but maybe a socially iso especially coming out of covert what's your message for those people who you know need to kind of take that first step yeah it's uh i'm i'm so glad that uh when i got involved in sport my parents um completely supported me and let me travel the world and and let me represent australia but for kids out there for parents um with kids with disabilities i encourage them to get their kids involved in sport because it just changes who they are and um it's it's not about it's not about winning and it's not about trying to get to a paralympics yeah that's awesome and if you want to aim for that go right ahead but just being involved in some sort of fitness activity it's not only good for you physically it's also good for you mentally but it's also good to be part of a community and that's what i've really understood over the last decade is yeah it's awesome to play this sport but it's more about the community and when i eventually retire from this sport that is what i'm going to miss the most is all the friends all the you know people i've met on the on the journey um you know gold medals are awesome you know we've won two of them absolutely awesome but you can't take away from those community experiences as well it's a big thing isn't it and the the Home Life family that gets created and the people that you get to meet around the world and just have friendships all around the world and travel to places and and tell us a little bit about that journey you know outside of sport now that you've been in this played over 300 games for australia and won two paralympic gold medals world championships you know tell us about uh home life and and you know how that's helped you build confidence in having relationships and and building friendships i i owe sports so much uh i probably would not be the person i am today without sport i i don't know where i'd be sport has allowed me to travel the world um to be comfortable with my disability growing up i did not like myself because of my disability even in my teen years i still did not like myself because of my disability and because of this sport side of things i i dropped weight i got some strength i feel a little bit more confident i explored you know different cultures around the world got to meet new people and that just opened my eyes it's also about hanging out with other people with disabilities as well you get to learn so much about each other and that just helps each individual better themselves um you know without sport i wouldn't have met my my now wife crystal um and you know there's just so many things in life that i have achieved i've been very very proud of and very lucky to achieve and that's because i have a disability and that's because i've got involved in sports so you know so many people look at me you know wheelchair and go oh poor bloke you know born with a disability and every other run um you know kicker footy all those kind of things but to be honest i am more than happy with my life there's not a day you know these days yeah in my teenage years is different but these days there's not one day where i go oh i wish i had legs or pull me it's this is this is who i am and i am absolutely stoked with who i am and because the way i am that's i guess it's it's it's made me who i am you know and that's you know i met my wife i would not have met my wife if i probably was an able-bodied um guy it's because i have the disability i've learned so many different values in life and yeah uh you've got to embrace those things and uh i appreciate you saying that because a lot of people do think of poor person with a disability you know they're struggling they're unhappy you know whatever but you've shown and many other paralympic and people with disabilities have shown you know that that's not the case that they're quite happy in their life and they live a very fulfilling life from a relationship and a work perspective and then obviously the sports component tell us about your job and what you do now because i think it's really important for people with disabilities to see that holistic approach for you people know you israeli about the beast out on the court but but what's riley about like at work i've got a bit of a split personality i will admit that um uh yeah i don't like who i am on the court i'm obviously very aggressive and that's just because i'm competitive and i wanted to bring the best out of myself and i've got to get that adrenaline pumping but off court riley's a a totally different guy yeah not as confident obviously as he is on the court but i'm very fortunate enough that i've been working for suncorp or gio for eight years now they helped me when i was sort of in the peak of my career after the london paralympic games and um yeah they've they've allowed me to work fully flexible from home uh in my hometown of pop macquarie for yeah eight years now and it's it's really the values and and what i've learned you know through working with such an amazing company um he's just been very appreciative so i've just moved into a new role there as a gio brand ambassador and it's just absolutely amazing to see these big corporations um you know getting behind um paralympic sports uh i have uh toyota and woolworth's ambassadors um i'm an ambassador sorry for toyota and worse i should say that and yeah also as a geo ambassador as well so mate i am i'm just so proud to be an australian and i really think australia um really does a great job embracing people with disabilities and like as you said earlier you know channel 7's coverage was just phenomenal and i just cannot wait to see the build-up to the brisbane 2032 games that sounds so weird saying that but i cannot wait to see the build-up that you know translink sport is just every game is going higher and higher and australia does not see the wheelchair anymore they don't see the disability they see the athletes they see the people um and we're just we just consider ourselves athletes too we consider ourselves normal people i think that's that's the thing isn't it a lot of and back in the day you know Paralympics when i was kind of playing goalball for australia in the 90s and stuff it would it was a different you know we we didn't train like a an able-bodied athlete but now as if you're a paralympian and you're in a high performance program it's it's exactly the same isn't it the training environment is as you know being in the able bodied olympics that that pressure and the the commitment is there you have to train every single day you have to watch what you eat you know you have to be strong strength and conditioning mental health all of those things and so i do see people now looking at paralympic sport and giving it that equality that it's been craving for for so long that's right mate it's um look it has it's grown even since i've been part of the games and my first paralympic games was 2004 and yes a lot of sports were you know professional but i guess wheelchair rugby in general or australia in general we probably weren't as committed as we are now and it's just every games it's got more professional and more professional and it's pretty much a full-time gig for us you know we're training every day we've got to worry about yeah nutrition recovery mental health side of things um just general gameplay strategy it's it's uh it's not like we just rock up the training and smash ourselves a half an hour an hour and go home it's it's a lot more than that and hey we get to represent australia um you know and if that doesn't make you proud and and want to make you um you know do your best then i don't know what will and for those of you who have never been a plunge pool before it is an absolute commitment so oh the ice baths yeah they are they um right we just bought a crossfit gym nine months ago and i put two ice baths in the crossfit gym for the members and uh i get a lot of people complain to me but you get used to it you get used to it you do i guess ndsp plan managers are your ndis plan management specialist and Athens 2004 are proud to support disability sports australia and getting more people with a disability involved in all levels of support choose a plan manager that will help you achieve your goals at ndst.com [Music] um mate let's talk about your uh paralympic career um you know as you said started in 2004 tell us about the early days you know before the gold medals came what were the important things in that team being able to grow yeah athens 2004 was my first penalty games as a 15 year old and it's very hard to remember a lot of it because it was just so much to take in as a 15 year old coming in i guess we we're looking pretty good to be honest as a team um but a few classification uh issues happen for us and we ended up coming out with a fifth place well it's an amazing achievement but it's sort of we sort of afterwards look back and went you know we had an opportunity to do a bit better here and it's time to up our game a little bit better and more and take this this sport more serious and give it some more energy on a daily basis so um yeah it was an amazing experience though just to go to athens um you know probably wasn't uh the most um cover you know it didn't have the most coverage this game those games but um for me as my first paralympic games i absolutely loved it and it was just i was very thankful to be honest that my parents let me travel halfway around the world to europe as a 15 year old with grown men in an opens team 15 years old you know just put that into perspective you know you you're in year nine in high school and and your whole world changes in i mean it's it's a massive achievement um and then when you came back what was the reaction from your classmates you know in in your school oh it's it's hard to remember as well 17 years ago now i'm so old right but uh yeah look at this school was uh you know loving that i was on the paralympic i guess train and i remember them doing some fundraisers for me um they obviously love seeing uh my results from tournaments whether it be for new south wales australia or whatnot so i didn't probably get the the most schooling done in grade year in grade grade nine and grade ten but um yeah i had some had some good times and i think sometimes traveling overseas and seeing different cultures and being exposed to different opportunities sometimes the better learning curve than school anyway absolutely um in 2008 yeah 2008 beijing paralympics so i know myself personally my goal was to you know experience the games in athens i got to experience and it was amazing but my next goal personally was to win a win a medal and i guess it didn't matter what color i just wanted to win a paralytic medal and the rest of the team were wanted to as well you know they had that i said i guess bad result in 2004 and we wanted redemption so um i was now 19 years old i was more of a i guess a leading role in this team as much as i was only 19 i had that on caught i guess offensive presence that i sort of had to be more of a leader and pretty hard for a 19 year old to be a leader with um you know you know men in the team from 20 to say let's say 40 um so uh pretty tough but um we uh we made it to the final and that was against america so we were absolutely chuffed you know we're guaranteed a gold or a silver medal the next day in the final and i think that's probably one mistake we made we well i know personally i was like yeah sweet you know we got that silver or gold medal and sort of maybe let let the foot off the accelerator a little bit and we got into that gold medal game and i remember being um i think tied or up by one point with america and halfway through the third quarter and then we just absolutely capitulated and um i'm going to blame that on us as a team probably not being as professional as we should have and our fitness level probably wasn't up to the level that america was and when i say we especially me i was 35 kilos heavier than i am right now and um i guess i was playing more on natural talent and it was a really tough one to swallow for me because i sort of felt like i let the team down a little bit and you know if i sort of was a little bit more elite and didn't have that many kegs in my body i um i i could have helped the team and you know we're there halfway through the third quarter all we had to do was push out another quarter and a half and it was a gold medal so uh that one hurt and what i actually did personally is i sat that silver medal as proud as i was of it i sat that silver medal on my bedside table and i used that as a motivating tool to go for the next one up and that's a gold medal so uh every morning that you know struggling to get out of bed because i'm so tired um it was a reminder that you know get your buddy out of bed riley and go be an athlete and get to work so uh next goal from there was gold medal it was a great motivating tool it talks about that change in professionalism doesn't it really in London 2012 paralympic sports not just for you but in that time frame of uh really you know going from beijing to london and i felt like in london um the paralympic movement really got that professionalism approach and started to get you know the the change you saw it um physically i was actually living in the united states at the time uh and and even there you know you started to see that transition to a professional sporting environment um and you know obviously with your motivation you went along for that ride and and then you know talk about london doing all that hard work over those four years and getting to 2012 and you're 23 years old then and you know the maturity level of being through two paralympic games yeah it was a it was a huge turning point in my life from from beijing and to london and i feel like winning that silver medal was you know looking back now is probably one of the best things in my life because if we won a gold medal you know i obviously want the whole team to win a goal but for me personally if i won a gold medal i might have rested on it and just gone ah we've done enough you know let's just go into the next games and not do work but it drove me to be the best and i yeah as i said lost 35 kilos in those four years i went and played two very successful seasons over in america and completely changed my game and my confidence in the game dropping all that weight being more confident comfortable and who i am and confident in who i am also um allowed me to met my and meet my now wife crystal and um it was just an amazing four year sort of time for me so coming into the london 2012 games i felt fit i felt lighter i feel faster stronger um but did have a few issues i i know i told my rotator cuff a few months out from the game so that was a little bit of a spanner in the works there but our goal obviously was the gold medal and we had a really good team at the london paralympic games um and our goal was to win every quarter of every game to achieve this gold medal and i remember going through the pool stages and and we won every quarter of every game we're like wow this is this is pretty amazing because when the coach asked us to do this to do this and you know when every quarter of every game we sort of went like you're bloody mad but we won every quarter of every game in the pool matches went into the semi-final against japan won every quarter of every of that game and then made it to the final now we've been in this situation before and we wanted to make sure we capitalised and we came out firing against canada and i remember we absolutely smashed them in the first sort of half and won both those quarters and won the last two quarters and uh i think won by 13 14 points in a paralytic final and uh to achieve our first gold medal so it was an absolutely incredible sort of time and i just remember the pride watching that australian flag go up the pole listening to you know the australian national anthem um my wife was there my my mum and dad were there as well and it's just um it is a sense of relief absolutely you know when you reach that mountaintop and you have visions about what it's going to look like it still never reaches actually what it feels like does it no that's right mate it's uh i don't i don't know i don't know how to describe it but just when you set your goals so high like that and you actually achieve them it's a very very special moment but you know moving on from there as well um us athletes are very weird we set a goal we achieved our goal but we still want more so after that gold of course we wouldn't go again Chris Bond let's talk about the teammates um you know obviously chris bond sits on our board at disability sports australia you've played against him and with him for a long time um you know people going to see you as the bash brothers of will air rugby uh both very competitive people tell us about your your bond with bondi i'll say what you did there uh yeah look bondy's obviously been a massive uh massive uh part of our team and i remember when he sort of came into the team in 2011 he was pretty raw he was pretty raw but he really dedicated himself to the sport and really took feedback on board and and really fast tracked his his play um you know i wish i i got up to speed that quick but um i guess when i was when i started i didn't really have as many high points to look up to um and learn from but bondi just did a really good job and um yeah we uh he's my bald brother and he's um he's done very well throwing that australian jersey on i uh obviously love playing against him when he plays for queensland um that's my favorite and i think we're i think uh he's beat us once i think in what the 10 years i've i've played against him so sorry buddy mate but you got to pick up the pace there buddy i just feel sorry for him actually at the national championships when when you were beating them pretty handily and and the crowd started uh cheering fire up bondi i felt like in his hometown that was a bit rough for him yeah well he's from canberra so i don't know why he's got that queensland jersey on anyway but um it serves him right there but now when he plays for australia we're best mates and we're both very we're competitors we just want to win at all costs and we understand each other um and you know we've had some spectral moments on that court and yeah unfortunately skipping board a little bit here the tokyo games um we'll pump to play together um you know we're both ready but with one of our players going down with illness that allowed it didn't allow us to play on port together and it really really affected us as a team coloplast have made countless lives easier for the last 65 years with their Coloplast range of intermittent catheters collecting devices and transcendental irrigation systems coloplast allows you more time to focus on the things you enjoy in life and less time on your continent's needs free ndis support nursing services and personalized support are just the beginning with coloplast find out more at coloplast.com.eu variety activate inclusion sports days are an essential Defending Gold part of what disability sports australia deliver as a program in schools to kids with a physical sensory or intellectual disability thanks variety for all of your support yeah well um just before we get to tokyo quickly let's uh jump back harder than winning i think your first paralympic gold medal is going back and defending it because all the expectations on you um you know you're a high quality um visible team here in australia wheelchair rugby has always been kind of the pinnacle of what paralympic sport is here um originally through murder ball and then obviously the progression of the sport tell us about going to rio and defending your gold medal poor yeah it was a tough challenge a very very tough challenge and um we're hungry though we're hungry to defend that gold medal and i think for me personally and a few players on the team one of our driving goals was in 2012 america was sort of our arch nemesis they were a rival team and we never got to play them in the paralympic gold medal final and we really wanted to play them in the final and they got knocked down the semis so you know when we won that gold as sweet as it was we felt like we didn't get to play america and knock them off the off the top and it sort of sat with me for a little bit and i used that as a motivator that i really wanted to win another gold medal and hopefully against america so 2016 campaign um we upped our gameplay to the to a whole new level we obviously had a bit of a target on our back being you know the defending paralympic champions and the world champions at that stage as well we won the world championships in 2014 so everyone was going for us and we knew it was going to be a tough paralympics and we went through the pool game i think we had a two-point win against great britain we had an overtime win against canada um pretty comfortable winning against a tough brazilian team but then semi-final we played japan who were absolutely amazing and i think we only won in the last sort of four minutes of the game and we're lucky enough that we you know came up in the final against our nemesis and that was america so he was their shot and i just remember that game being oh one of the toughest games of my life i just left it all out there and i know so many teammates did and um you know it was absolutely crazy in that state stadium i think 16 and a half thousand crazy screaming brazilian fans and we're lucky enough that they were i guess going for australia in modern america so it helped egg us on but uh we end up going to double overtime in this game uh double overtime and we won by one point in the final second of the second overtime and mate the pressure in that game was something that you would never ever be able to replicate and then the feeling afterwards of just relief of joy of happiness of oh so many different things running through my head here but it was just incredible and what it also did is it compounded that that sorry that london 2012 gold medal as well it made us realize that yes we earned that we didn't get to play america but yes we earned that because now we beat him here and win the defending gold medalist so it was so sweet and everyone asked me what gold medal was my favorite and you usually say you're first but i think the rio frantic gold medal final was just my favorite just an absolute pressure cooker of a game and uh yeah i don't really want to be in that situation ever again but hey if it's for apparently gold medal and bring it on would you would you say that's the the fondest game that you of over your 300 that you've played in definitely definitely was even though it's a bit of a blur just because the adrenaline um it's very hard to remember that game but i just poor yeah the feeling of just winning that game and um just how proud i was of the team just digging deep and taking on such a powerhouse in america have you gone back and watched it i have a few times yeah i don't really watch many of our games unless we're studying it um but i i yeah i do watch that and there is some moments where i just went in the fourth quarter where we're up by a few i made a few errors and i cringe still to this day but look at the end of the day you're under massive fatigue you're on a massive pressure you're going to make a mistake but i feel like we we rebounded really well and and i i also cringe a little bit at the moment where i think it was the end of the first overtime where i had to thread a pass to bondi um and he had to score it was about one second on the clock to go to to force us to go the second overtime to keep us in the game and well it was a risky pass but lucky that we were on the same sort of wavelength and he was ready for it and yeah he saved our bacon there and then i helped out i guess in the second quarter so uh comes around and swings absolutely so then look you've won two paralympic World Championship gold medals you're on top of the world uh you've been your arch rivals covered hits you go you go you play your world championship in in sydney um losing in the final um narrowly uh to japan and at that stage look do you think the rest of the world is catching up a little bit 100 yeah um when you're there when you're the targeted for we're wouldn't have won in the world for i think almost nine years and when you're the targeted everyone's going to catch you and it's very hard to find ways in your game to improve and it happens with any team you know if you're at the top for that long it is very very hard to stay at the top because everyone's just copying what you do and figuring you out so um yeah we'll definitely the hunter team and you know our home world champs in sydney and we were i felt like we were the best we ever been that in that tournament we were absolutely killing it in the pool games um you know we beat japan and when the pool games by i think 14 points was a huge win against a tough japan team and unfortunately in the final we just um i just i don't even know what happened i i never ever like to blame refs but we did get some terrible calls in that one and i think it just sort of kept snowballing for us and i remember we were down by seven points at one stage and against a team like japan you you're almost given up mentally because you can't come back from from that when they're so dominant at being controlling on offense and bonnie and i looked at each other and just yeah i remember just going let's just give it everything we got and um we just had a run in the third quarter and yeah we came back and i remember being even for the last sort of quarter of the game and it was we were making a few errors they'll make a few errors and fatigue was just absolutely massive in that fourth quarter because we had to absolutely give it everything to get back in that game and i felt like it was at our fingertips and i felt like we were in the driver's seat but yeah we unfortunately um had a play to make it go to overtime and then the last 10 seconds and we just couldn't make it happen and yeah japan beat us by one point and you know hats off to japan they um they deserved it they rebounded really well and yeah it hurt to it hurt to lose on home soil but uh we got them back the following year on their home saw at the world cup we beat them by i think two points or one point in you know nail-biting game on the in front of a packed-out crowd so uh yeah it's we've sort of even with each other there so it's good right obviously look you it's bad to lose uh by a point but then you came back like you said a year later COVID Impact and it really probably motivated you to get revved up again you're building towards you know 2020 and and then covert hits and and the plan just gets completely derailed right and and for those of you who are watching around the world in australia we we kind of got an initial hit of covert from march to kind of july and um and then thought okay well we probably escaped that now we went back and started doing things again and then uh in sydney we've got another hit over christmas and then again it just blew up in in 2021 and isolation for a lot of the team members impossible to get training camps impossible to go away to competitions and so your whole plan from the world championships to paralympics got derailed and then obviously a year went by delay with tokyo um just you know give us an overview about how um how much of a difference that's made when the rest of the world are catching up to you um coming on to your level uh being able to overcome some of those things with having training camps for them being able to go play competitions in in the americas in in europe um and and we're kind of you know stuck at the bottom of the world uh not being able to do anything yeah it was a definitely a tough time mentally probably the toughest time in my life um you know happened when i say having to it did start to feel like a draw but going to training every single day to do the best you possibly can um with tokyo in in sight and it being pushed another year away was was tough it was really tough and you know seeing our competitors competing around the world going to training camps when we could not get together for over 18 months as a team it was hard and coming into the tokyo games i know personally i was studying pbs strength and fitness wise i know a lot of athletes in our team were playing probably the best like you know individually doing the best they ever have but when you haven't been as a team for that long we haven't been in a high pressure situation since october 2019 and we're expected to perform at the you know tokyo was now 2021 apparently game so almost two years and not been in a high pressure situation or being together as a whole team so what do we expect you know i think you know it was outside of our control completely outside of our control and when we got to got to tokyo and we hit the floor in the first game um it just did not feel normal i for me personally i felt like i was almost a new player and nothing was coming to my mind automatic and yeah i did struggle and yeah we improved a little bit as the tournament went on but we were just so far behind the eight ball with all these other teams who had been playing and training and um you know the teams who you know got on the podium at tokyo we ended up coming fourth but the teams who came first second third at all been training camps had all been competing against sort of other teams and um yeah it was just outside of our control mate we did everything we possibly could to to defend our gold medal but unfortunately it's just the roller dice and unfortunately in australia with our strict lock down rules and travel rules we uh we just couldn't see each other so uh it is what it is but you know having that loss um i think puts that fire back in the belly and it's another motivator you know because as i said in beijing if we won that gold medal might have rested on our laurels but now we go well you know we've been at the top of our game for nine years we've been successful let's take this hit and let's pick it back up and talk you know let's let's watch our competitors and and and aim for higher than them so it's a good transition though because you know um you go through these cycles right and in sport and but it mirrors life you know and we're talking about people with a disability getting active and being active more often it's that mindset right where you have expectations about how you're going to perform in life if you've got a job if you've got a relationship you know if you get on the court and you're in a sporting environment it mirrors each other right and so sport can really be that catalyst to be able to help you in other parts of your life where as you said you know you're going through a covert environment you're struggling you know how does that play in getting back out on court it's almost a freedom isn't it yeah it is mate yeah look at the end of the day tokyo was an amazing game look we can't take you know anything great granted you know yeah obviously our result didn't go the way we wanted but let's look at the big picture here and yes we wanted to win a gold medal but at the end of the day we're there to motivate the future of people coming you know future athletes coming through people with disabilities kids with abilities you know not even you know not have not using a wheelchair we're still motivating kids you know who are running around the playground so that's the big picture is is motivating the future australians and i feel that as a whole collective you know the paralympics australian paralympic team i think we achieved this i think there was so many strong powerful messages sent back to australia from tokyo channel 7 obviously did the amazing coverage and you know it was another massive leap forward in this paralympic movement and that's that's the big picture you know obviously results matter but being looked up to as idols as a strong resilient people and as role models for so many australians is is what we you know what we want to achieve carrying the flag in an opening ceremony Carrying the Flag that um the team didn't get to go to um it was you kate and denny out there representing tell us about that i mean i spoke to luis savage um to give you some perspective in the in the first episode of this podcast and talk to louise about lighting the torch in sydney and then carrying the flag in athens and obviously you're in that team um you know what what kind of honour is it i mean all of us can just imagine but and tell us about walking you know wheeling in that stadium with carrying the flag with denny and just the feeling that they must have especially because you were representing everyone else who couldn't be there yeah it was obviously a different games wasn't it first ever opening i think well it's you know let's hope it's the only opening ceremony that no one's going to be in so it's going to be one that's looked back upon and it's going to be a special one so um i think when danny and i got announced as co-flag bearers of the australian paralympic team alongside the co-captaincy it was just oh you know one proud moment and you know a tear did come to my eye because i never thought i'd ever be able to fly a flag for australia but i guess being looked upon your fellow peers your fellow athletes as a leader um of this an amazing successful team is just an absolutely truly you know a true honor so uh yeah it was different as a different opening ceremony but it was a special one and you know we had an amazing um let's say party before the opening ceremony at the front of our allotment and all of uh all of our australian um athletes staff whoever was there in the allotment all got together all dressed up had a special sort of um uh i guess uh announcement and then we had a guard in honor to send myself and danny and kate out so uh we knew that all us all the australian paralympians who were there who were at home you know paralympians who have gone before us were all behind myself and danny and we're flying that flag with with true honour and it did still feel like we had the team behind us out there i i know it showed on the cameras but um we we really felt the pressure of um and the pride of of of australia Female Participation and um that came through i think obviously through the channel seven coverage but you know through your instagram feeds and and the different things that were being posted by paralympics australia and definitely got that team unity message uh here in australia um mate just uh finishing off for the first time in a paralympic uh wheelchair rugby team you had a female participant and uh shea i had the the pleasure of seeing shea play in the australian championships which were just a month before you went away um and just her tenacity and fight on the court and obviously you know with some illnesses in your team she probably got more court time than maybe was expected but she went out there pretty fierce and and for her what do you think about that not many people even know that wheelchair rugby is a mixed sport um because you do see a lot of guys but there are some females in some other teams as well but and tell us what it's like to have shea perform and what that means for the female sport in the disability space especially so yeah just to give everyone a guess a heads up so it's a mixed sport and females um i guess now encouraged to participate and what they've done is we have a classification system and to have a female on the team they get a deduction of a classification it means pretty much we can run more points on the court so we can have a stronger lineup and i think it is amazing for our sport because we have members like now shay graham on our team who is the perfect fit for us and it is different having a female on the team from you know from so many years of just being male dominated but shay fits right into the team and as you saw her on the court in tokyo she's fierce and she's built for this game so um yeah we love having her on the team and to be honest yes she in tokyo probably wasn't meant to get so many minutes but she did her role and stepped up and and did an amazing job and she needs to be really proud of that so um future's looking really good for shay i'm really hoping she um gets more confidence from those games and um it's so good for wheelchair rugby it's so good for disability sports in general to see um male and females competing on the same field last question mate um National Referral Hub we're at disability sports australia we're launching the national referral hub we want to encourage everybody to refer somebody with a disability to be more active more often in australia what's your message for people like physiotherapists exercise physiologists occupational therapists teachers why should they refer somebody that they know with a disability yeah i think it's um you know you look at my story if i didn't have sport i wouldn't be who i am today um i've learned so much about my abilities and and not my disabilities um and you i think i think you need to refer people because it just gives them a totally different outlook in life and um you know being around people with disabilities being around disability sport in general for me um i have learnt so much and so many kids out there will do the same they'll learn from each other you learn how to adapt you learn different ways to just be independent so um yeah definitely get involved in sport it's um it's changed my life and i've seen it change so many others riley you're a champion on and off the Outro court mate i really appreciate your time today it's been fascinating to to hear your background and your story and and just see that fighting you and and we all look forward to the next world championships into paris in a short number of time and then eventually brisbane 2032 which i'm sure we'll be doing another podcast don't don't shake your head you're only a youngster nah thanks murray thanks for having me you're doing a ripper job so thank you no problems mate thanks very much take care and we'll talk soon thank you for listening to another exciting episode of breaking disability if you'd like to learn more about disability sports australia please go to our website www.sports.org dot a u and if you'd like to refer somebody to our national referral hub you can go to the same website again it's www.sports.org dot pay you and click on the refer national referral hub link and then refer a friend someone you know with a disability to become more active more often i'm murray orbon and thanks again for listening to our breaking disability podcast we'll see you in the next episode breaking disability the podcast is an evolution and an opportunity for you the listener to be able to understand and better connect with superstars in disability sport across australia paralympic athletes but also people who have been involved in the disability space who have played characters with a disability and learn more about their lives and what they do from a sports perspective from a recreation perspective and more importantly it just helps break down those stereotypes about disability that currently exists in the marketplace we want you to know that people living with a disability don't have horrible lives that they are confident that they can do things they can be active in their community that they can be influencers they can be brand ambassadors they can be anything that they want it to be and we want to show that you that highlight those things so that employers people in community sports clubs people just in teams or in a workplace if you have a friend with a disability you help understand that ask questions have conversations to be able to put these stereotypes to bed and really understand what having a disability and living with a disability a means and what lived experience really means and it's different for everybody and that's why these podcasts featuring stars like louise savage and riley bat and many others to come will enhance your understanding of what truly lived experience means and we hope uh bring you some exciting stories along the way of what paralympic and disability sport mean to people so enjoy our next episode and if you haven't already gone back and listened to our existing episodes we hope that you will try and listen to uh the ones that we've done so far and give us your feedback on on people that you'd like to see on the podcast and guess we we should have we're always keen to be able to engage with you so again refer somebody with a disability today go to www.sports.org dot a u thanks for listening to breaking disability i'm murray oldbourne ceo of disability sports australia and we'll catch you next time