A highly talented athlete in a diverse range of sports, Alexandra Green is one of the busiest members of the Australian team. The Sydney-sider is one of the very few athletes to train and compete in two sports – cycling and rowing.

Alexandra, who has mild cerebral palsy, first took up sport after watching a television show about Para-equestrian. Sparking her interest in disability sport, she discovered she was eligible for the Paralympic Games, and her Paralympic dream began.

Tyson Lawrence expects a lot from himself. He is constantly setting himself new goals and targets that push him closer and closer to the ultimate athlete he wants to be. These goals however are by no means impossible.

Steven George is a 26 year old who hails from Nobbys Beach in Queensland. Steven is a professional cyclist and pilot to Paralympian Bryce Lindores.

Paralympic pilot cyclist Shaun Hopkins and his partner Ben Demery continued on their excellent 2006 and 2007 form to win two silver medals at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games in the 1km time trial and the sprint. The Games themselves were an experience Shaun will treasure for life but he was disappointed the pair did not win gold, after three steady years of silver medals.

Our Paralympic cyclists can look forward to being steered in the right direction with pilot cyclist Katie Parker at the helm. Tearing around the race track at high speeds does not scare her one bit, not nearly as much as buying a house and having a mortgage.

By the time Jane Armstrong had finished high school, most of our first time Paralympians had not yet been born. That the proud grandmother and oldest member of the Australian cycling team is a current world champion is all the more impressive.

Nicknamed ‘Gecko’ by his team mates, Chris Scott is respected for his discipline and dedication. He considered retiring after the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games

but first wanted to win a gold medal at the 2002 World Championships – the only prize that had eluded him. Once that was achieved, Chris went on to win four gold, one silver and one bronze at the Athens and Beijing Paralympics.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Sean Finning has complemented his outstanding able-bodied cycling career with success at his first Paralympic Games in London 2012.

A former member of the able-bodied Australian cycling team, he debuted for his country at the 2002 UCI Junior Track World Championships in Melbourne. Sean’s crowning moment of glory came at the 2006 Commonwealth Games when he won gold in the men’s point score race in front of a home crowd.

Mark Jamieson’s life has revolved around cycling. Having first competed in the sport at just 10, he dreamed of riding for his country and as a teenager, made his first Australian team at the World Junior Track Championships in 2001. He held a scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport.

In 1994 when he was just 24-years-old, Stuart Tripp was involved in a car accident that changed his life. After weeks in a coma, he woke to discover his right leg had been amputated; he had head trauma and his kidney were failing. On what was at times an emotional physical journey of recovery, Stuart took up hand-cycling and channelled all of his positive energy into the sport.