Coming from a very sporty family, Kathleen O’Kelly-Kennedy played standing basketball for a while before her mentors, Paralympians Don Elgin and Tim Matthews, convinced her to try Paralympic sport. Her proudest moment came when she first represented Australia at the Tri-Nation Tournament in America in 2003.

As one of the youngest members of the team at the Beijing 2008 Games, in London 2012 Cobi Crispin had matured to one of the best players for the Gliders. Now a lynchpin in the team’s setup, Cobi has enjoyed both team and individual success throughout her career.

She took up wheelchair basketball in 2003, after already having an interest in hockey, swimming and touch football. In just three short years she was named the most valuable player in the Northern Challenge in 2006.

A surviving member from the bronze medal winning Australian team from Beijing 2008, Clare Nott’s experience and cool head were important qualities to have on court when the Gliders won silver four years later in London.

She first represented Australia at Spitfire in Canada in 2005. The following year, she was part of the World Championship Gold Cup team in Amsterdam. By 2008, she was on the Australian Gliders team and at her first Paralympic Games.

Five-time Paralympic gold medallist Kieran Modra is one of the most decorated and respected members of the Australian track cycling team. A pioneer in tandem cycling, Kieran has competed many times as a Paralympian and at various sporting championships over his career spanning two decades.

Having enjoyed stellar results in the prelude to London 2012, Felicity Johnson knew she had given herself the best chance possible to win gold in the 1km time trial. With pilot Stephanie Morton, she was the world champion two years running (2011, 2012) and the world record holder. Paralympic gold was the culmination of the perfect year for Felicity who had also set a world record in the 200m flying sprint and won the world title in the tandem sprint.

A stroke at birth left Wade McMahon with hemiplegia, but living a life with no regrets has turned the shot put expert into a world champion athlete.   

Having most recently won bronze in the 4x100m relay at the 2011 IPC World Championships and placing fourth in the javelin, Wade first represented Australia in 2002, bursting onto the scene with a bronze medal at the 2002 FESPIC Games in the 4x400m relay. He then went on to receive the 2006 Sports Achievement Award after impressing at the 2006 World Championships.

One of the most successful Australian Paralympian athletes of all time, Russell Short stands ready to enter a remarkable seventh Games at London 2012.

The super talented discus, shot put and javelin thrower has won no less than six gold, two silver and two bronze medals from participating in the last six Games. This is in addition to four gold and three silver medals from the last five World Championships.

With a career spanning four Paralympic Games across two sports, Richard Nicholson is a jack of all trades. First beginning his sporting career in archery, at the request of a high school PE teacher he later trained and competed in mainstream gymnastics, in which he excelled.

A keen participant and follower of sport, shot put expert Noni Thompson is in her element competing on the athletics field.

She was involved in a serious car accident in 2004, acquiring a brain injury that Noni feared would prevent her from achieving her sporting aspirations. But post-accident, she was absolutely thrilled at finding she could still throw the shot put and javelin, setting her on course towards the Paralympic Games.

While Michelle Errichiello will be competing at her first Paralympics at London 2012, she enters the Games with a big reputation. Making her debut for Australia at the 2009 Arafura Games in Darwin, Michelle made a stunning entrance to the world scene, breaking the T42 200m world record in her first attempt.

The record only lasted all of 40 minutes after Michelle’s training partner, Kelly Cartwright, broke it again. Nonetheless, it marks Michelle as an athlete to watch out for in London.