Anton
Zappelli

Anton Zappelli has been an integral member of the Australian Para shooting team since his World Championships debut in 2014.

Once a promising golfer, Anton competed in wheelchair road racing throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, before finally finding his calling in 2011 as a star Para shooter.

He won his first international medal, a bronze, at the 2015 International Paralympic Committee Shooting World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, and made his Paralympic debut the following year at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, where he contested two events and achieved a best result of 18th in the mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1.

This was a life-changing moment for Anton. Another came 27 years earlier on a corrugated gravel road in Ora Banda, WA, when his girlfriend at the time, who did not hold a driver license, lost control of the wheel of his car, hit a windrow and flipped. Although she, along with her two sisters, escaped injury, Anton suffered a traumatic blow to his spinal cord and became a T11/T12 paraplegic.

At his second Paralympic Games at Tokyo 2020, he contested in two events. In the mixed 10 metre air rifle prone SH1 Anton struggled to gain momentum in the highly competitive field, finishing in 15th place with a score of 631.6. He placed 11th in the mixed 50 metre rifle prone SH1, after an admirable performance in the highly competitive field scoring 616.0 – just 1.4 points away from making the final.

Based in Willagee, Anton is a father to twin boys and a girl, and somehow manages to juggle his hectic family life with extensive shooting commitments and employment and board positions within the not-for-profit sector. This level of responsibility is a far cry from his days spent as a roadie with the famous Australian folk band, The Waifs.

When he’s not shooting, Anton enjoys fishing and camping. He is also fiercely committed to promoting the importance of road safety, and in 2010, he and fellow Paralympian, wheelchair rugby player Craig Parsons, were followed by documentary filmmaker Sandra Cook on a 5000km tour of the Australian outback on quad bikes for her award-winning documentary The Ride.