As the curtain fell on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games it is believed that the multi-sport extravaganza will provide a trigger that will change perceptions of disability in New Zealand as well as continue to transform lives through the power of Para sport.
Paris 2024 staged one of the most influential editions in the 64-year history of the Paralympic Movement.
In New Zealand, the games captured the hearts and the minds of the public like never before leading to record-breaking levels of engagement across both linear and digital channels.
TVNZ has long been a huge supporter of the transformative power of the Paralympic Games and for Paris 2024 offered its most extensive coverage of a Paralympic Games.
“The extensive TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+ broadcast has not only been able to showcase the performances of our NZ Paralympic Team on the world stage but also to promote the range of Para sports across all of Aotearoa New Zealand,” Paralympics New Zealand (PNZ) chief executive Greg Warnecke said.
“We know that this level of coverage will be central to inspiring the next generation of New Zealand Paralympians, to help us discover the next Cameron Leslie or Anna Grimaldi, and to help inspire the nation about what is humanly possible.”
The innovative PNZ campaign “We’ll Give You Something to Talk About” centred on the NZ Paralympic Team also helped connect with Kiwis like never before and unprecedented engagement across PNZ’s digital channels including socials and website.
In the countdown to and during the course of Paris 2024, the public passionately showed their support of the Team by sending hundreds of messages of support.
Meanwhile, interest in Para sport among New Zealanders has surged. Seeing is Believing – the Paralympic Education Programme has massively exceeded expectations with more than 250 schools across New Zealand registering to take part in the programme.
“With the NZ Paralympic Team giving everyone #SomethingToTalkAbout, we have never seen this level of social engagement and support for our NZ Paralympic Team, as we have seen through our digital channels across the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games,” Warnecke said.
“The hugely positive support from Kiwis all over the country and the world who have been engaging via our social channels, and the social channels of our partners, has been nothing short of overwhelming. It has opened up many new audiences to Para sport, by being able to share the truly unique and inspiring stories of every member of the NZ Paralympic Team, providing access and insights to them as elite athletes, but also as proud Kiwis themselves.”
The 24-strong NZ Paralympic Team included 10 debutants, and five Paralympians aged 20 and under impressed by setting between them one Paralympic record, four Oceania records, 11 national records and 12 personal best performances as well as countless season bests performances at Paris 2024.
Through their performances, NZ Paralympians have certainly inspired future Para athletes.
PNZ has seen an eight-fold increase in registrations of interest made by potential Para athletes leading into and during the Paralympic Games.
The hope is that long after the flame at Paris 2024 has been extinguished the conversations prompted before and during the 11 days in the French capital can continue to help inspire societal change and make for a more inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand.
WAIKATO 2024 PARALYMPIC MEDALLISTS:
Danielle Aitchison claimed two silver medals in Paris. Photo / Photosport
Danielle Aitchison – Paralympian No 211
Silver medal (2): Women’s 200m T36 and Women’s 100m T36
Danielle Aitchison claimed a brilliant silver medal in the final of the Women’s 200m T36 on day four of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Locked in a titanic tussle with Yiting Shi, Aitchison just could not quite manage to overhaul the Chinese athlete as Shi prevailed by a margin of just 0.14 in a Paralympic record time of 27.50.
For the 23-year-old Hamilton-based athlete it was a third Paralympic Games medal of her career.
The former Patetonga resident clinched her second silver medal at Paris 2024 recording a time of 13.43 in the Women’s 100m T36 final to finish behind Shi.
“I just wanted to go out there and have fun no matter the outcome. I wasn’t particularly happy with the 200. Out there I loved the challenge with Yiting Shi next to me, pushing each other along. I’m really happy with how the race went,” Aitchison said.
“It is so special to have my family in the crowd. It is so different from Tokyo. It is so great to have them come over to Paris and celebrate with me and enjoy the experience. I’m really excited to get back into training in a couple of months, I know I can push myself and get that gold medal in LA.”
Aitchison played a range of sports during childhood but only discovered Para athletics in her teenage years.
Born with cerebral palsy and a hearing impairment, her talent for sprinting was quickly realised and on her international debut at the Dubai 2019 Para Athletics World Championships, she earned a stunning silver medal in the Women’s 200m T36.
Aitchison went on to claim silver and bronze medals in the Women’s 200m T36 and Women’s 100m T36, respectively, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Nicole Murray – Paralympian No 222
Bronze medal: Women’s C5 3000m Individual Pursuit
Ngāhinapōuri School alumna Nicole Murray, 31, claimed an outstanding bronze medal in the Women’s C5 3000m Individual Pursuit at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The Cambridge-based Para cyclist, who had set a national record at 3:37.599 in qualification, went even faster in the bronze medal final to record a time of 3:36.206 and claim a comprehensive victory to defeat Claudia Cretti of Italy.
“I am so happy to be here, I am so overwhelmed by the crowd. It was tricky staying calm between the qualification and final,” Murray said post-race.
“I am so pleased to have my parents and auntie here. I kept seeing all the support and tearing up. It is the first time my parents have been here for any of my international races. It is cool to be able to share this with them.
“I am blown away I got to the final. It was a stacked field, and the time trial is definitely not my best race, so just to make the final is incredible.”
Nicole Murray (left) and Anna Taylor right with day one medals at the 2024 Para Cycling Track World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Photo / Paralympics New Zealand
Anna Taylor – Paralympian No 225
Silver medal: Women’s C4 3000m Individual Pursuit
The New Zealand Paralympic Team claimed their first medal of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games courtesy of Paralympian #225 Anna Taylor, 33, who secured silver in the Women’s C4 3000m Individual Pursuit final.
In the final, Taylor was lapped by Australia’s gold medallist Emily Petricola, but the 33-year-old Para cyclist from Cambridge was rewarded thanks to a brilliant ride in qualification after she sliced more than six seconds from her national record, recording 3:42.137.
Taylor made a scintillating start in the gold medal race blasting out to a sizeable early lead and held a narrow advantage at 1000m.
However, Petricola the defending champion who had set a world record of 3:35.856 in the qualification, took control in the second kilometre.
Pouring on a relentless pace the Australian caught Taylor around 2500m to signal the end of the race but the Kiwi would not be denied a stunning silver medal.
Taupō-raised Taylor was formerly a non-disabled rower who earned a scholarship in that sport to attend Oregon State University.
While in the US she overcame thyroid cancer before later undergoing emergency decompression disc surgery and being diagnosed with Acute Cauda Equina Syndrome – which has caused a weakness in the left leg and minor weakness in the right.
“To even come back for a second Paralympic Games (is amazing) but then to podium, I am overjoyed. It is unreal, like living a dream,” Taylor, who has faced health challenges since Tokyo 2020, said.
“The game plan was to give everything I have to get in the gold medal race, and it was a huge PB. I am glad it worked out that way.
“I am just grateful that all the work I have put in has paid off because that is not always the case. I am glad everything held together. My family being here means everything to me. They’ve supported me regardless, been my champion through some tough and dark times.
“It is very hard to pick yourself back up after you get knocked down many times, although sometimes that is what is life is all about. Just being part of the New Zealand Paralympic Team, I am part of something bigger than any hardware I have got today.”
