Ironman Hall of Fame 2002, Hawaiian Ironman 1995, 1996, 1997, English Channel 1998
Bio
For most people who are fortunate enough to make an Australian rowing team, it is the highest sporting achievement of their lives. However that is not necessarily the case for athlete John Maclean, who already has an impressive career behind him.
You could mistake Ben Houlison for a typical 27 year old male. He enjoys drinking beer, following his local football team and beef cattle farming. Unlike most 27 year olds however, Ben is also a champion adaptive rower.
After a workplace accident left him as a paraplegic, Ben left his job as a coal miner and began training to become a world champion athlete.
Gavin Bellis has rocketed through his rowing career at lightning fast speed to earn a place at his first Paralympic Games, just over a year since he first competed internationally in rowing.
Winning silver at London 2012, selection for the Australian team in his first year of competition and making the A final at the 2011 World Cup
Greatest Moment
Winning gold at the qualifier for the 2009 World Championships
Bio
Erik Horrie had one of the most harrowing, inspiring and eventful Games campaigns at his first Paralympic Games in London. With his fiancée due to have a baby any day and a Paralympic medal on his mind, the day after his first heat, he suffered a seizure which saw him admitted to hospital.
Having made a promise to himself years earlier that he would race and win a medal in London, Erik was determined to make the final, where he remarkably won silver and then learnt the news he had a new baby boy.
Winning silver in Beijing and representing Australia, winning Australia’s first ever Paralympic rowing medal
Greatest Moment
Winning silver in Beijing, only missing gold by 0.08 of a second
Bio
Beijing silver medalist Kathryn Ross has only one goal for London – to win the gold medal that she so narrowly missed in Beijing. Reunited with her long term rowing partner John McLean, she snared a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Slovenia, signaling the duo are again well and truly in the mix for Paralympic Games glory.
Rowing was included for the first time in the Paralympic program in 2008. Commonly known as adaptive rowing, it is open to people with a physical disability or vision impairment in sweep rowing or sculling disciplines.
Who is eligible for Rowing? Athletes with a vision impairment or physical impairment (such as spinal or nerve injury, limb loss or limb deficiency, cerebral palsy or other similar disability).
What are the classes? Athletes are classified into classes depending on their functional ability and their class corresponds to the type of boat they compete in.
Athletes with a vision impairment: LTA (legs, trunk and arms) only. Athletes with a physical impairment: LTA(legs, trunk and arms), TA (trunk and arms) and AS (arms and shoulders).
How do I get a classification? Request a classification using the Get classified form.
Classification Masterlist: Athletes who have been nationally or internationally classified as per IPC / FISA Classification Rules or APC Classification Policy are automatically included in this database. Australian Rowing Classification Masterlist
Rules & Equipment
The hull of the adaptive rowing boat is identical to able-bodied boats. Adaptive rowing boats are equipped with special seats, which vary according to the disability of the rower. To date, there are no other specifications on the seat apart from the following: the LTA4+ has a sliding seat; the other three boat classes have fixed seats. The TA 2x has a seat, which offers ‘complimentary support’. The AW1x and AM1x are equipped with a seat, which offers ‘postural support’ to those individuals with compromised sitting balance (i.e. spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy). This ensures that the upper body is supported and kept in a fixed position.
Smaller boats are equipped with buoyancy devices called pontoons, which act as stabilisers attached to the boats riggers, providing additional lateral balance.
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