Angie Ballard

Angie Ballard is a world-class competitor with vast international experience spanning five Paralympic Games.

She found her competitive edge in wheelchair racing in 1994, five years after she was injured in a near fatal car accident as a seven-year-old. Her parents were eager for Angie and her brother, who has spina bifida, to get involved in Para-sport, and it did not take long for those around Angie to realise they were witnessing the rise of a future Paralympic star.

Angie made her Paralympic debut in front of a home crowd at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, and as the reigning world champion in the women’s 100m T53, she won her first Paralympic medal, a bronze, at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games.

A silver medal in the women’s 4x100m T53/54 at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games preceded Angie’s most successful Paralympic campaign to date at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where she won a pair of silver medals in the women’s 200m T53 and women’s 400m T53, and bronze in the women’s 100m T53.

Having collected two world titles in the women’s 200m T53 and women’s 400m T53 at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Angie was one of Australia’s top gold medal contenders leading into the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. But after more than two decades competing for her country, Paralympic glory continues to elude her.

Angie’s next stop is the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, where she hopes to finally turn that dream of Paralympic gold into reality.