Jessica Gallagher

Jessica Gallagher’s career in sport is as unique as they come. 

She first made history in 2010, when she became the first female athlete from Australia to win a medal at the Paralympic Winter Games, and again in 2016, when she became the first Australian to win a medal at the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games. 

Jessica achieved selection to her first Australian Paralympic Team in Para-athletics in 2008. However, on the day before the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony, disaster struck – classifiers determined that she was 0.1 degrees too sighted in her right eye to be eligible to compete. 

However, as Jessica’s eye disease is degenerative, she returned to the Paralympic track and field for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, where she placed fifth in the women’s long jump F13 and sixth in the women’s javelin F12/13, despite a meniscus tear just weeks before the Games hampering her preparation. 

Jessica won her second Paralympic medal in Para-alpine skiing at the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, before transitioning to Para-cycling and winning a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, and one world title and four minor medals at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships. 

At the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, Jessica won gold medals in the women’s tandem sprint B and time trial B with pilot Caitlin Ward.  At the 2024 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Caitlin Ward won two bronze medals – Women’s Sprint B and Women’s Time Trial B.