Ben Tudhope
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Ryley Batt is one of – if not, the – greatest wheelchair rugby player of all time. Yet his story started a world away from the global sporting spotlight as a little kid who rode around on a skateboard and refused to use a wheelchair until the age of 12.
That changed after Batt saw a wheelchair rugby demonstration by two-time Paralympian Brad Dubberley at his school. Just three years later, at Athens 2004, he made his Paralympic debut as the youngest ever wheelchair rugby player to compete at the Paralympic Games.
It kickstarted a career that has seen him achieve all that is on offer in the sport. Batt was a leading player in the Australian Steelers team that won silver at Beijing 2008 before securing historic back-to-back gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016. The latter was won in double overtime against the US in what many regard as the greatest wheelchair rugby game of all time.
Batt was also key to the Steelers’ World Championship victories in 2014 and 2022 and spearheaded the team’s campaign at Paris 2024, where they won bronze.
You only have a short amount of time and I want to look back and know that I gave everything.
More than a year after Paris, Batt revealed he had played through major injury at the Games, which culminated in a reconstruction of his left elbow and left shoulder. However, in the same way he defied the limits of his impairment – he was born without legs and had surgery to separate his webbed fingers – Batt worked his way back to the top, leading the Steelers to World Championship silver in 2026.
Batt’s approach to playing wheelchair rugby today can be summarised in his recent comments about what drives him.
“I may have achieved everything I want in sport – I’ve won World Championships, Paralympic Games, played 360-plus games for Australia and been to six Paralympic Games, I don’t need to do anything else for myself personally – but I do want to try to win for the team, and I want to show these newer athletes who have never won a World Champs or a Paralympic gold medal what it’s like,” he said.
“Not only that, but I also want to make sure I look back when I retire and am able to say that I gave absolutely everything I can to this sport and to the green and gold, because you don’t get this opportunity forever.
“You only have a short amount of time and I want to look back and know that I gave everything and I’m super proud of the effort and the energy I put into representing Australia.”
