The 2024 Paris Paralympics will squeeze 549 medal events (an increase on the Olympics’ 329) into just 11 days of competition. Attempting to watch all of those events, most of which will take place in the middle of the Australian night, is a daunting prospect. But with what we expect to be a massive gold-medal haul from the Australian athletes, there are plenty of moments you simply can’t afford to miss.

For that reason, selecting the events you’re going to watch is an important task. You don’t want to commit to staying up past 12am or waking up at 4am unless it’s going to be worth it, but you also don’t want to risk missing out on a magical moment.

To put your mind at ease, we’ve hand-picked the Games’ headliners, so you can get your priorities straight. All dates and times are in AEST.

August 29th

Para-swimming heats – 5:30pm

Wheelchair rugby pool stage, Australia vs Great Britain – 7:30pm

August 30th

Men’s wheelchair basketball pool stage, Australia vs Netherlands – 5:30am

Men’s 400m freestyle, S9 final – 1:30am

Australian flagbearer Brendan Hall is a two-time gold medallist in this event.

Women’s 400m freestyle, S9 final – 1:40am

Lakeisha Patterson won gold in this event in Tokyo three years ago.

Men’s 50m freestyle, S10 final – 3:41am

Rowan Crothers won gold in this event in Tokyo. Thomas Gallagher is also a chance at a medal.

Men’s wheelchair tennis, round 1 – 8:00pm

Aussies Anderson Parker and Ben Weekes will both be in action.

Men’s Javelin, F38 final – 8:09pm

Corey Anderson won gold in the F38 javelin back at the 2019 world championships with a world record throw.

Men’s wheelchair basketball pool stage, Australia vs Spain – 8:45pm

Women’s track cycling, C4 individual pursuit final – 11:35pm

If all goes according to plan, Tokyo gold medallist Emily Petricola will once again race for gold here.

INSTAGRAM | @rowan.crothers

August 31st

Wheelchair rugby pool stage, Australia vs France – 3:30am

Men’s 5000m T13 final – 6:10pm

Jaryd Clifford fell agonisingly short of a gold medal in this event at the last Olympics. Can he take the top honour here? We’d back him to do so.

Women’s 5000, T54 final – 6:36pm

A dual gold medallist in Tokyo, Madison de Rozario can cement her legacy in Paris.

Wheelchair rugby pool stage, Australia vs Denmark – 9:30pm

Men’s track cycling, C1-3 time trial – 10:02pm

Darren Hicks won this event at the last Paralympics. He has a solid chance of doing it again.

Men’s track cycling, C5 individual pursuit final – 11:21pm

Alistair Donohoe is a four-time Paralympic medallist but he’s yet to capture that elusive gold. Hopefully that changes here.

Women’s track cycling, C1-3 time trial final – 11:35pm

Amanda Reid is returning to defend her Tokyo gold medal in this event.

INSTAGRAM | @alistairdonohoe

September 1st

Men’s wheelchair basketball pool stage, Australia vs USA – 6:30pm

PR3 mixed double sculls final – 8:10pm

The Aussie duo blew away their competition to win gold at last year’s world championships.

September 2nd

Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, S14 final – 1:30am

Men’s 150m individual medley, SM3 final – 3:20am

Ahmed Kelly is the reigning world champion in this event.

Men’s 100m T34 final – 6:00pm

Rheed McCracken has won silver in this event for the last three Paralympics in a row. He could finally crack the gold here.

INSTAGRAM | @aussie_rollers

September 3rd

Women’s 50m freestyle, S13 final – 2:47am

Katja Dedekind has won gold at the last two world championships and it’s hard to see her missing out on the top spot here.

Men’s javelin, F64 final – 3:00am

A silver medallist at the last Olympics and 2023 world championships, Michael Burian will hope he can find a way to the top of the podium.

Men’s 1500m T13 final – 6:00pm

Jaryd Clifford took bronze in this event in Tokyo. He’ll be hoping to finish even higher up the podium in Paris.

Men’s 400m T36 final – 7:55pm

James Turner will look to defend his gold medal from Tokyo.

Women’s 1500m T54 final – 8:19pm

A dual gold medallist in Tokyo, Madison de Rozario can cement her legacy in Paris.

INSTAGRAM | @jarydclifford

September 5th

Women’s 100m freestyle, S9 final – 3:35am

About as close to a gold medal lock as you can get, Alexa Leary won this event by more than two seconds at the 2023 world championships.

September 6th

Men’s 200m individual medley, SM9 final – 2:31am

Timothy Hodge is a multiple-time world champion in the SM9 IM. He’ll be hard to beat in Paris.

Women’s T63 long jump final – 3:00am

Vanessa Low won gold in this event in Tokyo and is the red-hot favourite to repeat.

September 7th

Men’s 100m backstroke, S14 final – 3:04am

Can anyone unseat Benjamin Hance as the king of the S14 100m backstroke? We doubt it.

Women’s 50m freestyle, S4 final – 4:03am

Rachael Watson is going for her third consecutive Paralympic gold medal in this event.

September 8th

Mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, 34 points final – 1:30am

Men’s 1500m T38 final – 3:00am

Reece Langdon and Angus Hincksman won silver and bronze at last year’s world championships. Australia would be unlucky to miss the medals here.

Women’s 400m T38 final – 4:32am

A silver medallist at the 2023 world championships, Rhiannon Clarke could become a gold medallist on the last day of the Games.

Women’s T54 marathon – 4:00pm

This will be Madison de Rozario’s final event on a busy schedule.

INSTAGRAM | @reece_langdon

Related:

Everything you need to know about the 2024 Paralympics

At his sixth Paralympics, Tristan Knowles will give it all he’s got

Paralympic swimmer Rowan Crothers won’t stop exceeding expectations

The post Every single event you won’t want to miss during the 2024 Paralympics appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Crothers has an invisible disability. He was born 15 weeks prematurely and as a result, developed cerebral palsy. This impacts his coordination and motor skills throughout his entire body, but in his legs in particular.

Crothers’ condition affects him daily, but it’s not something you’ll notice immediately upon meeting him. Nor does it prevent him from pulling off athletic performances most people wouldn’t be able to dream of replicating. “Disability is just a spectrum of ability,” Crothers tells Men’s Health. “Everyone has things that they can and can’t do, and what I really want to see is Australia supporting everybody and helping us all do the things that we want to do.”

Not long after he was born, Crothers’ parents were told he would struggle to ever be independent. Athletic endeavours were out of the question. But as a Paralympic gold medallist, world champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Crothers has made a habit of exceeding expectations. Speaking to him, you get the sense that Crothers doesn’t like being told what he can’t do. Heading into Paris, he has a few more expectations he’d like to exceed, but he’s not limiting his goals to winning gold medals.

At Tokyo 2020, Crothers won gold in the S10 50-metre freestyle and silver in the S10 100m freestyle. While the 50 metres has been his favoured event in the past, Crothers is switching his focus to the 100 metres in Paris. “My big performance goal at the Paralympics is in the 100-metre freestyle, I’d love to swim under 50 seconds,” Crothers says. “Everything I’ve been focusing on over the past couple of years has been about putting my body in a position to swim 49 seconds.”

No para-athlete has ever broken the 50-second threshold in the 100m freestyle, no matter their classification. The world record in Crothers’ S10 classification is 50.64 seconds, which is the fastest time recorded in any para classification. Crothers swam a 50.70 to win gold at the 2022 world championships, but to reach his latest goal, he’ll need to shave almost a full second off his personal best.

There’s no use questioning an athlete on why they aim to do anything, because the reasoning would usually be incomprehensible for the average person. Why, when they’ve already achieved so much, do these athletes put their bodies through daily torment to continually improve and strive for more? You or I would be unlikely to understand. But for Crothers, the answer goes beyond personal motivations and vanity. He has always been an overachiever, consistently exceeding the expectations laid in front of him by doctors, specialists, classmates, teachers, commentators and even the general public. He thinks others can too, with the right support.

Supplied

During his early childhood, Crothers’ life was consumed by forecasts of his limited physical and mental ability. “I remember going through some tests and seeing different specialists that basically placed me within the bottom one per cent of the Australian population in motor skills, cognitive function, problem solving and communication skills,” he says.

Eventually, Crothers’ parents grew tired of the pessimism. “Every time my mum and dad saw one of these reports from a doctor that basically said I wasn’t going to be capable of achieving anything in life, they said, ‘Why are we only getting the worst possible outcome?’”

Switching their perspective, Crothers and his family consulted with a team of therapists and specialists with the aim of helping him become the best he could be. “We would have multiple sessions every week with physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists to build a plan that my mum and dad would then execute,” he says.

Crothers first encountered swimming as a result of this plan, but he didn’t take to it straight away. “I didn’t enjoy it at all at first,” he says. “I needed a teaching aid in the pool with me at all times because I refused to let go of the side and had a big fear of drowning.”

That changed in 2008, after Crothers watched Australian swimmer Peter Leek – who also has cerebral palsy – win eight medals at the Beijing Paralympics. This presented an opportunity that Crothers hadn’t previously considered: elite para-sports. “If you have a look at what is promoted around the Paralympics, you’d think it’s only for amputees or people who require the use of wheelchairs,” Crothers says. “That’s what I thought. I didn’t know they were an option for kids like me. So, when I recognised that this was something I could do, I said straight away I want to swim and I want to be there someday.”

Following the Beijing Paralympics, Crothers started taking swimming more seriously. He began training not just for physiotherapy, but to see just how much he could achieve. But even still, his disability left him at a disadvantage. “Even when I was 10-11 years old, I was in the learners’ swim classes with the six-year-olds because I couldn’t kick yet. Even though I had more upper body strength and ability than everyone else, they still wouldn’t move me up because I couldn’t kick,” Crothers says. “Well, I still can’t kick properly and I’ve got bloody gold medals under my belt.”

Growing up in this environment showed Crothers the importance of supporting people with disabilities, including the ones we can’t see. He’s now an advocate for invisible disability inclusion and believes that a little extra support can go a long way. “I think that there’s a lot that can happen if we just try to support people and have a bit of faith in others,” he says.

We still have a long way to go in becoming a truly inclusive society for people with invisible disabilities, says Crothers. “There are times where I’ll be denied entry to a bar because people assume that I’ve been drinking because of my disability,” he recalls. “At concerts, where I need a seat in the accessibility section, I’ve been denied entry and looked at weird because I don’t use a wheelchair. Things like that happen everywhere and they can be really preventative of a more inclusive world.”

Supplied

Crothers’ breakthrough came at the 2013 para-swimming world championships, where he won gold as part of the 4×100-metre freestyle relay team and bronze in the S9 100-metre freestyle at just 15 years of age. A year later, he won gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and he was named to the Australian Paralympic team for Rio 2016 not long after.

By 2019, Crothers was recognised as one of the world’s best swimmers in his classification and was expected to take home some heavy hardware from the 2019 world championships. At the time, he was going all-in on swimming. “I had deferred from university, quit doing all my hobbies and everything else to just focus on swimming,” he says. “Physically, I was very fit, but mentally I was way too focused on one thing and I never had the time to take myself out of swimming.”

Crothers came away from the 2019 world championships with three bronze medals – an incredible achievement, but short of his goal of gold. This showed him the importance of finding balance in training. “As much as I love swimming, if all I think about is swimming, I’ll place too much pressure on myself, and when I get to the big dance I’ll crack,” he says.

Just because he takes a balanced approach to his routine, that doesn’t mean Crothers goes easy on himself physically. He’s in the pool nine times per week, often doubling up on his sessions with multiple swims per day. Here, Crothers points to his treatment at the Queensland Academy of Sport as further evidence of what can happen when people with disabilities are given the support they need. “These people don’t see me as an athlete with disability, they see me as a professional elite athlete preparing for the biggest competition of the year,” he says.

Crothers’ hard work paid off at Tokyo 2020, where he won a pair of Olympic gold medals and a silver. But now that he’s won every title there is to win, proven every point and exceeded all expectations, he’s still striving for more in Paris this month. Although, he’s placing less value on medals and more on making statements. So, why the focus on breaking the 50-second barrier?

“I see breaking the 50-second barrier as a symbol,” Crothers explains. “If I can do it, that might inspire other young kids with disabilities around Australia to break their own barriers and forget about the expectations other people place on them.

“What I really want to do is make the most of the opportunity after the race, where I’ll be on TV and will be speaking to possibly a few million people around Australia and around the world,” Crothers continues. “I don’t want to use that opportunity to talk about how great I am, I want to use it to raise positive messaging about the incredible things that people all around Australia, with or without disabilities, can do if they focus on the things they love and chase their dreams.” Having accomplished all he’s ever set out to do, Crothers is a living proof of his own concept.

INSTAGRAM | @rowan.crothers

Related:

At his sixth Paralympics, Tristan Knowles will give it all he’s got

Dylan Alcott can’t be stopped

Everything you need to know about the 2024 Paralympics

The post Paralympic swimmer Rowan Crothers won’t stop exceeding expectations appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Knowles is Australia’s joint-most decorated wheelchair basketballer of all time, with three Paralympic medals – one of them gold – and two world championship victories to his name. During his tenure with the team, the Rollers have gone from an outfit of perennial nearly-men who had only medalled once in Paralympic history to a formidable unit that’s always contending for top honours and is recognised as one of the best teams in the world.

At 41, Knowles has been a consistent member of the national squad for more than 20 years, but he’s been hesitant to consider retirement in the past. “I love competing, but honestly, if I had quit sometime over the last few years, I couldn’t have said that I was leaving the team in a better condition than when I joined,” he tells Men’s Health. That’s not the case anymore.

Heading into Paris, Knowles believes the Rollers are a strong chance of claiming their first Paralympic medal in 12 years. “I haven’t been this confident in the team winning a gold medal in a long time. I truly believe that our strategy and blueprint can take us all the way to gold.”

Knowles is confident, without being cocky – and don’t mistake his faith in his team with arrogance. Like many in his sport, Knowles has experienced highs and lows. He’s won gold medal games, but he’s also lost them. Although, his experience with both sides of the coin isn’t isolated to the court. Knowles’ life has been a battle of highs and lows. It’s those experiences, he believes, that have honed his mindset into what it is today and given him what it takes to overcome adversity and be confident in the face of overwhelming odds.

INSTAGRAM | @tristanknowles09

“Growing up, I was a very active kid whose thoughts were consumed by a dream of captaining [AFL team] Hawthorn to a premiership, Aussie Rules was my passion,” says Knowles of his relationship with sport before his life was changed forever when he was nine years old. “One day, my left leg began to get sore just above the knee and at first, a GP put it down to a common growing pain. After a couple months it wasn’t getting any better, so I went and got an X-ray done.”

The next day, Knowles was informed that he had bone cancer in his left leg, and that the limb would need to be amputated above the knee, turning his life on its head. “It was a scary thing to go through at such a young age, and it ended up being something which challenged me for most of my teenage years,” Knowles says. “My immune system was virtually at zero for the first 12 months after, so I couldn’t even risk getting a cold. It meant a lot of time away from school, friends and playing any sort of sport.”

Knowles was on the road to recovery, enduring years of therapy and medical examinations before finally, during his last quarterly check-up, he was told that doctors had found cancer in his lungs. “It was terrifying because, from getting to know some of the other kids in my situation who had brain or lung cancer, I learned that those were the kids who usually didn’t make it,” he says. “I think that was probably the first time in my cancer journey that I allowed this really, really scary thought to enter my head that I wasn’t going to make it and that I might die at 11 years old.”

This was a turning point in Knowles’ life. Obviously, a cancer diagnosis is always life-changing, but it was in these moments that Knowles’ mindset was built, thanks to a little white lie. “I asked the doctor what my chances of surviving were and he said ‘50-50’. Later, my parents revealed to me that my actual chances of survival were around 5 per cent,” he says. “That had a profound impact on me. It showed me the importance of mindset when approaching a situation of adversity and it helped me maintain hope in a difficult time.”

After beating cancer, Knowles began another battle: getting back into sport. “I had a strange feeling after beating cancer the second time that the battle still wasn’t won,” he recalls. “I still had those dreams of being an AFL player, but obviously that had all been turned on its head. It left me with a feeling of emptiness.”

Knowles spent the next few years searching for the sport that was right for him, which was no easy task. “I’d tried what felt like every other sport under the sun and I just couldn’t find anything that I liked,” he says. Eventually, he discovered wheelchair basketball and from there, he never looked back. “I didn’t cross paths with wheelchair basketball until I was about 15, but I loved it straight away. It has a lot of similar elements to Aussie Rules, it’s fast, physical and it’s a team sport. I very quickly fell in love with the sport and started to form some pretty big goals around what I wanted to achieve.”

Those goals that Knowles speaks of didn’t take long to manifest into a plan of action. He became “obsessed with making the national team” and at 18 years of age, moved to Wollongong from Canberra to join and train with a wheelchair basketball team. At that time, Knowles was studying at university, training whenever he could and saving his particularly tough sessions for the weekend. It didn’t take long for his hard work to pay off.

Knowles received his first call up to the national team when he was only 18. A few short years later, he was heading off to his first Paralympics in Athens. There, Australia improved upon its previous campaign where the team finished fifth, but fell painfully short of ultimate victory, falling to Canada in the decisive gold medal game.

That defeat stuck with Knowles. “I feel like every athlete says this, but we didn’t feel like we won silver, we felt like we lost gold.” The near miss brought about a reckoning, a thorough questioning of the Rollers’ strengths and weaknesses where each member of the squad contemplated what they could do to improve and how they could finish atop the podium at the next Paralympics. “We made a commitment to each other to come back stronger,” Knowles says.

INSTAGRAM | @tristanknowles09

Four years later, the Rollers went into the 2008 Beijing Paralympics with a single goal in mind: win a gold medal. After progressing through a five-game group stage and two knockout games, the Rollers were presented with a familiar foe in the gold-medal match. The same Canadian team that crushed their dreams four years earlier now stood in their way once again.

At the time, Canada was inarguably considered the best wheelchair basketball team in the world. Since winning gold at the previous Paralympics, the Canadians had also won the 2006 world championships and had only dropped three games in the entire Paralympic cycle. Unfazed by their formidable opponents, the Australians emerged victorious, winning only the team’s second Paralympic gold medal in the event. “It’s hard to put into words the sensation and feeling of winning a gold medal,” Knowles says. “It was the payoff for years of hard work and sacrifices.”

The Rollers backed up their Paralympic victory with wins at the 2010 and 2014 world championships, establishing themselves as the team to beat in international competition. Though on the Paralympic stage, success was harder to come by. Silver was all they could muster at the 2012 Games, despite entering the tournament as favourites. At Rio 2016, the Rollers were knocked out in the quarterfinals and faced the same result at Tokyo 2020.

Despite the recent disappointments, Knowles is confident that the Rollers can end their medal drought in Paris, with him now serving as the team’s captain. And at this point, he knows what to expect. “By the time you go to your sixth games, you kind of know how a lot of things are going to go. But that hunger for success never goes away,” Knowles says. “It’s been 10 years since the Rollers have been in the final of a major event, and that’s a hell of a long time to go between drinks. We’ve got a real chance of winning gold in Paris.”

Expect Knowles to give it all at the Games, but whether or not the Rollers win gold or crash out early, he won’t let it define his career. “As an athlete, you’re taught this mentality of all or nothing. I think that can be helpful sometimes, but it’s not always the right mentality,” he says. “What I’ve learned as time’s gone by, and particularly through being an AIA vitality ambassador, is that for most people it’s more about those small somethings. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about doing little things consistently for a long period of time.”

This is what Knowles calls the “all or something” mindset. It’s helping him ground himself in reality heading into the Paralympics, but he also believes it can benefit everyday Australians. “On a more basic level, it might mean getting a set amount of work done each day of the week, or drinking more water or getting eight hours of sleep a night. If we can look after our own health and just do something, that’s all that really matters.”

“I’m really fortunate with the platform that I have as a Paralympian and within AIA to be someone who can advocate for people to look after their financial wellbeing too,” Knowles continues. “As an athlete, I’m acutely aware of how important it is to look after my physical and mental health, but in my role with AIA, I’ve come across some studies that have uncovered some pretty alarming stuff, like that someone experiencing financial stress is twice as likely to experience mental health challenges. So staying on top of your financial wellbeing can be just as important.”

Heading into Paris, Knowles hasn’t yet confirmed whether or not this Paralympics will be his last. He insists that he doesn’t want to leave until he’s certain that the national team is in a better position than what it was when he made his debut. Not that we’re encouraging an early retirement, but regardless of the outcome in Paris, we can say with confidence that Knowles has left an indelible mark on wheelchair basketball, and the Rollers are better for it.

Related:

Patty Mills on levelling up when it matters most

Dylan Alcott can’t be stopped

The post At his sixth Paralympics, Tristan Knowles will give it all he’s got appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

Few sporting events are as inspiring or impactful as the Paralympics. Celebrating the achievements of athletes with disabilities and promoting inclusivity, the Paralympics are the world’s third biggest sporting event behind only the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. The Games attract millions of viewers from across the globe in a spectacle of human athleticism.

More than 1,000 athletes from over 100 countries will compete at this year’s Paralympic Games, which are set to begin in just a few days’ time. Until then, you’ll need to get caught up to speed on what to expect, when to tune in, and who to watch. Don’t worry, we’ve done the hard work for you. Here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 Paralympics.

When do the Paralympics start?

The 2024 Paralympics will run from August 29th to September 8th, 2024. The Paralympics have a tighter program than the Olympics, with only 11 days of competition. That means there’s more crossover between event scheduling. Whereas the Olympics has swimming events in the first week and athletics in the second, the Paralympics run most events concurrently. So there’ll be a constant stream of entertainment on offer.

Are the Paralympics also in Paris?

Yes, Paris will host the 2024 Paralympics, just as they hosted the 2024 Olympics. Many of the venues used during the Olympics will also be used during the Paralympics, so expect some familiar sights.

INSTAGRAM | @tristanknowles09

What sports are at the Paralympics?

Twenty-two sports will feature at the 2024 Paralympics. The program mainly includes established events you likely would’ve encountered at previous Games, but there are a few newer additions. Para Taekwondo and Para Badminton are both returning after making their debuts at the Tokyo 2020 Games, while a number of mixed events in swimming and athletics will make their first appearances.

Find the full list of Paralympic sports below:

Para Archery

Para Athletics

Para Badminton

Boccia

Blind Football

Para Canoe

Para Cycling (Road and Track)

Para Equestrian

Goalball

Para Judo

Para Powerlifting

Para Rowing

Para Shooting

Sitting Volleyball

Para Swimming

Para Table Tennis

Para Taekwondo

Para Triathlon

Wheelchair Basketball

Wheelchair Fencing

Wheelchair Rugby

Wheelchair Tennis

INSTAGRAM | @jarydclifford

How does Paralympics classification work?

To ensure inclusivity and fairness in competition, the Paralympics feature a classification system which groups athletes based on the type and extent of their disabilities, rather than using a catch-all system that jumbles them together. Each sport has its own classification criteria, but the athletes competing usually fall into six main categories:

Amputee: Athletes with limb loss.

Cerebral Palsy: Athletes with neurological conditions affecting movement.

Visual impairment: Athletes with varying degrees of vision loss.

Spinal cord injuries: Athletes with paraplegia or quadriplegia.

Intellectual disabilities: Athletes with cognitive impairments.

Les autres (French for ‘the others’): Athletes with conditions that don’t fall into the above categories, such as dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.

Does Australia do well at the Paralympics?

Historically, Australia does very well at the Paralympics and is one of the most successful Paralympic nations. Australia has won a total of 1,240 Paralympic medals, far surpassing its Olympic tally. The nation has even topped the Paralympic medal table, finishing first at Sydney 2000 with 149 medals, 63 of them gold. Since then, Australia finished fifth on the tally at four consecutive Games, followed by an eighth-placed finish at Tokyo 2020.

Who are some of the best athletes to watch at the Paralympics?

INSTAGRAM | @rowan.crothers

Rowan Crothers: As the gold medallist in the men’s S10 50-metre freestyle at Tokyo 2020, Rowan Crothers is the world’s fastest Paralympic swimmer. He’ll be looking to repeat his gold medal-winning performance later this month.

Jaryd Clifford: Clifford was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration as a child and is considered legally blind. He made his Paralympic debut as a 17-year-old at Rio 2016. He’s since racked up three medals, with bronze in the T13 1500m, silver in the T13 5000m, and silver in the T12 marathon. To this point, a gold medal has eluded Clifford, but he’ll be hoping to change that in Paris.

Tristan Knowles: A veteran of Australia’s wheelchair basketball team who won gold at Beijing 2008 is returning for his sixth Paralympics. This time, Knowles will take to the court as captain of the Rollers. The team hasn’t won a medal since London 2012, but Knowles has told Men’s Health that he believes the current squad is the strongest he’s seen in years.

Alexa Leary: If you’re after a tear-jerking story, look no further than Alexa Leary. The 23-year-old suffered traumatic brain injuries in 2021 after a cycling crash nearly took her life. At the time, Leary was a promising triathlete and even won silver at the under-19 world championships, but she’s since shifted course to Para swimming. She won gold at last year’s world championships in the S9 100m freestyle and looks likely to add a Paralympic medal to her mantle.

Madison de Rozario: Six-time Paralympic medallist Madison de Rozario is one of Australia’s flagbearers for the 2024 Paralympics. Competing since Beijing 2008 as a wheelchair athlete, de Rozario won her first gold medals at Tokyo 2020 in the T53 800m and T54 marathon, earning her the coveted award of Australian Paralympian of the year in 2021.

INSTAGRAM | @alexa_leary

Where can you watch the Paralympics?

Like with the Olympics, Channel 9 holds the broadcasting rights for the 2024 Paralympic Games. Major events will be broadcast live on 9 and its subsidiary channels. All events can be streamed live and free on the 9Now app. Events can also be streamed on Stan.

Related:

How a Paralympian actually trains for the Paralympics

The unrelenting drive of walking quadriplegic David Mzee

The post Everything you need to know about the 2024 Paralympics appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

DYLAN ALCOTT, you could say, has an aura. Irrepressible, charismatic, with a healthy sliver of Aussie larrikin spirit, as he wheels his way into Men’s Health’s shoot at One Playground in Sydney’s Marrickville, he informs our stylist that he’s going shirt-off on the cover today. “I didn’t work this hard to hide anything,” says the 33-year-old, 23-time Grand Slam winner, four-time Paralympic gold medallist and 2022 Australian of the Year.

Soon he’s on the floor with his trainer, Jono Castano, who’s holding his legs, as Alcott knocks out some pre-shoot push-ups, before he grabs some dumbbells and launches into a series of biceps curls and shoulder presses. Once we start shooting, Alcott offers suggestions to the photographer on composition and camera angles, making it clear how important it is that his wheelchair is highlighted front and centre.

Alcott has trained for 12 weeks for this moment, but the truth is, today is not the realisation of a lifelong dream – as Alcott explains, when he was a kid, the idea of someone with a disability being on the cover of Men’s Health wasn’t something to which he believed he could even aspire. Instead, it’s the latest achievement in a life dedicated to pushing through perceived obstacles and challenging perceptions of what a person living with disability can do.

“I used to read Men’s Health when I was a kid,” Alcott tells me after the shoot wraps.  “I never saw anybody like me doing anything like this. Anyone with a disability at all really. And that would’ve been pretty life-changing for me when I was really struggling with my own self-worth, my body image, getting bullied about my disability. It would’ve been incredible. I don’t have abs, I’m a paraplegic – it’s really hard to get abs. I didn’t used to love my body. I still have moments where I don’t, but I was like, ‘You know what? Lets go kit off on the cover’. It really pushed me.”

By taking on this challenge and putting his body on display in perhaps the most public way possible, Alcott confronted, head on, long-held insecurities about his physique and his self-image. “I learned that I can really do it and be proud of how I look and not be embarrassed about my body, my stomach,” he says. “It’s important to really have that self-worth and love yourself before anyone else can love you.”

But as well as seeking to inspire, Alcott also sought to educate. “I want to remind personal trainers, people that own gyms, that you need to be accessibly inclusive for our community,” says Alcott, who among his many projects since retiring from tennis, is an ambassador for KIA Australia and Longines and has founded the Dylan Alcott Foundation, helping young Australians living with disability overcome the barriers of entry to sport. “I wanted to train, to show them [trainers] that we can do it. But also, to show people with disability who might’ve had an accident or have never done this, that you don’t have to train like an able-bodied person, you just have to train in your own way. You have to figure out what works for you.”

Here, in his own words, Alcott breaks down his 12-week challenge, something we at Men’s Health usually call a ‘transformation’. In this case, that might not suffice. Alcott’s journey is bigger than that; more far-reaching and likely more impactful, a potential pillar in a long overdue reckoning in how those with a disability in our community are perceived. Dare to dream, goes the saying. Alcott’s message: dare to do it.

I’VE ALWAYS LOVED sport, but I couldn’t really access it as a kid. I played with my brother in the backyard, but I was always the timekeeper or the manager. I got bullied a lot and hated my disability. I was embarrassed about it. When I looked at Men’s Health, I never saw anybody like me, not even close. And that’s hard, to be honest. If I could go back and tell that little kid that you’re about to be nude on the cover of Men’s Health, that kid would not have believed it.

I do like to think he was a good kid, but the truth is, he wasn’t a happy kid and he wasn’t a confident kid and he wasn’t going to the gym. He was eating pizza on the couch and playing video games.

What really saved my life was finding Paralympic sport. Not just the physical benefits and the mental health benefits I got from it, but finding my community, my tribe, other people with disability who were happy, who were thriving – not just surviving – who were having a crack. I’m very lucky for that, I really am.

I wanted to pursue sports just because I wanted to be like my brother and like everybody else. We live in a sporting culture. And I’d be lying to say that as soon as I started, I had a lot of people telling me that I was good. I was like, Wow, I love this. Did I think I was going to win gold medals and Grand Slams? Absolutely not. I just loved pouring my effort and competitive nature into something. I couldn’t get enough of it.

The reason I loved it was because it made me feel free. Free of my own lack of self-worth, free of getting bullied. I was out there having a crack. It was just amazing. When I was 14, I started playing wheelchair basketball. When I was almost 16, I was like, Oh my god, I could go to the Paralympics when I’m 17 for either basketball or tennis. I had to pick one. I picked basketball, we won the gold medal, great choice. And then I was off to the races from there.

I AM COMPETITIVE but not against my opponents. I know that sounds weird. A lot of athletes get drive from, I want to beat that guy or I want to beat that team. I never hated anyone that I played against. I didn’t even think about them that much. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. That’s how my mentality worked. But I also wanted to prove to society that you should watch Paralympic sport because it’s entertaining, because it’s elite, that was my driver. My purpose was changing perceptions around disability. I put a lot of pressure on myself to prove that.

Later in my career I didn’t do that because I put too much pressure on myself. I realised I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. I just had to go out there and enjoy myself and try my best. And that was why I ended up winning everything, rather than trying to prove something to Australia or the world.

I’m competitive with myself to want to do my best but when I lost big tournaments, I never got angry. I was just sad that I’d missed an opportunity for myself. When someone else beat me, I was pumped for them. I lost my last match. I don’t even think about it. I could not give a shit now. People say, “How many Opens have you won?” And I go, “I forget”, because I don’t count them. It’s more about the mission and what it meant for me.

WHEN I STARTED this challenge, I was far from my athletic peak. When I won Australian of the Year, I spent 245 days on airplanes that year, with 370-odd engagements and I didn’t give a shit. I was just like, You’re retired. So, I blew out. I probably put on 15 kilos, but I didn’t mind too much. But I realised that by not being active, it was really affecting my mental health, because as an athlete you get the benefits of being active for your mental health, for free. So, I was like, Why am I so grumpy and tired? It was because I wasn’t being active. And I also saw myself on TV and I had about four chins and I went, Alright, let’s change that.

I think what was in my favour with this challenge was that Jono, my trainer, and I live in different states. It was quite funny; I was sending him nude photos – well, I had my underwear on – every couple of days to show my progress. And my girlfriend’s like, “Who are you sending sexy photos to?” I said, “That’s just Jono”.

But what really worked in my favour was having the ability to smash myself in the gym without somebody there pushing me. That’s a really hard skill, if you’re not an athlete. So, with the sessions with Jono it was easy because he’s like, “Now, do it”. When I’m in Melbourne in a cold gym in my garage going, I don’t want to do this, I had that internal drive to do it because of my athletic background, but also because I wanted to show the world that people with disability can be sexy and ripped on the cover of Men’s Health. I had that purpose behind me, not just ‘I want to look good’. That wasn’t my purpose in this. My purpose was bigger than that.

When people train me, because I’m disabled, sometimes they’re scared of breaking me or hurting me. So, I stupidly said to Jono, “Man, I know I’m in a wheelchair, don’t go soft on me, you can smash me”. That was the dumbest decision that I ever made because from day one he smashed me and I was like, Am I going to be able to do this for 12 weeks? But I loved it. It was so awesome. He really took into account changing some exercises to be accessible for me, being inclusive in the gym but not shying away from some things. He was like, “Can you do this? Let’s figure out a way to do this”. Not, “I assume you can’t do that”.

It’s hard when you’re a paraplegic, you can’t really get abs. I used to worry about my weight. Fuck weight. It’s about how you feel. I know it [weight] is kind of a good benchmark, but really, it’s about how you feel. So, what I was really worried about was feeling good and looking good. Those were my benchmarks.

Day one, in the gym I had to get 30 cal on the Ski-Erg. It took me three-and-a-half minutes. By the end of it, yesterday, I did 40 cal on the SkiErg in 2.50. I’m also back to my athletic best in chin-ups, all that kind of stuff. I would say I am close to as fit as I was at my peak as an athlete. I think my fighting weight when I was playing tennis was about 65 kilos. When we started this, I was about 70 kilos and today I’m a bit under 62.9 kg. I lost about 10 per cent of my body weight.

THE HARDEST PART of this challenge was the travel. Across the 12 weeks, I had a trip to America, I had 10 days in Southern Africa and a week in the south of France, all for work. Safe to say there weren’t as many gyms where we were in South Africa. I was doing push-ups in car parks, doing hill sprints, just trying to find a way to train. And I think the biggest thing that I learned, and I love educating people about, is that when I retired from sport, if I didn’t have an hour-and-a-half to train, I didn’t bother because as an athlete, that’s how long you need.

When you’re not a professional athlete, you’ve just got to do something, just for your mental health as much as anything, and then the physical health benefits will come.

You just need 45 minutes to get out there and have a crack. Do some hill sprints. If you’ve got a gym, do a session, whatever it is. I had a day where I started in Brisbane, flew to Melbourne and ended up in Perth. I was wrecked, right? But you get to the hotel, you do half an hour or something in the gym. Afterwards, I just felt better.

When I landed in France, the first thing I did was a session. Why? Because I felt better. It helped with my jet lag. I told myself I was doing it for Men’s Health, but really, I was doing it for me so that I felt good. It’s so easy to eat room service, not go to the gym, have a nap, and you’ve just got to make sure you get out there and do something. It really does help.

I WANTED TO take on this challenge, not only to normalise disability but to change perceptions. I would tell people I’m doing the cover of Men’s Health. They’d be like, “What do you do in the gym?” Genuinely. It’s like, “Great question. Let me show you”. Imagine if we inspire a young trainer to want to know more or a young person with a disability to get out there and have a crack. That’s what it’s about.

I often get called an advocate and role model and that’s lovely. But I don’t wake up going, How am I going to advocate today? Or What angle am I going to push? I just get up and be myself and that’s hard enough as a person in the public eye. I’m authentic and vulnerable when I feel I need to be or want to be, but I also look after myself on that as well. I really don’t try too hard and think too much about how I want to sculpt my brand. I’m just being myself.

When I was 12, I met Adam Gilchrist. I love Gilly. He came up and he goes, “Hi, I’m Adam”. And I went, Fucking, of course you are”. Why is he saying his name’s Adam to me? And I was like, Oh, because he’s just Adam, he’s a person. When people come up to me, they go, “Oh, my God”. I say, “Hi, I’m Dylan”. They go, “I know”. I go, “Yeah, but what’s your name?” I think it disarms people and that’s what I want because I’m equal to them no matter what we both do.

My number one priority in life is just being a good person who enjoys my life. I’m a smart ass, self-deprecating, a dickhead really, in a good way, like anybody else. And I think that’s really important. A lot of people, when they get in the public eye, they portray something they think society wants. That’s really tiring and hard work and I couldn’t do that. But also, when I started in the media, I was a bit self-conscious about my disability. I was trying not to talk about it, not show it. It’s like, No, no, it’s a part of who I am. So, I waved all that away and guess what happened? Everything started becoming real, and I was like, Oh, they actually don’t care that you’re in a wheelchair. They care about your personality, if you’re a good person, if you can take a joke.

You see me on TV, I’ll make a joke about my wheelchair. You’re allowed to laugh. I think that humour is a really good way to normalise disability, so I’m always going to be myself. Life’s about living and I just get out there and have a crack.

MY ADVICE TO anybody who wants to change something in their life, is four-fold. Firstly, there’s power in authenticity. Saying you want to change something because you genuinely do, is so important.

Secondly, the power of vulnerability. If you want to change something, the best way to do it is to ask for help. Don’t try and do it yourself. I learned that young, when I was really struggling with my mental health. I didn’t tell anybody because I felt like a burden, an embarrassment. It was silly. It’s okay to ask for help.

The third one, which sucks; you’ve got to work hard to change things. You’ve really got to put the time and effort in.

But the most important thing, have a crack. Just start. We always talk ourselves out of everything. Just go, I want to do that. You’ll be horrible at it when you first start, and that’s okay. It’s okay to be bad at things. You get better over time.

---

 

Dylan’s 12-week training regimen

Alcott worked out with trainer Jono Castano, founder of Acero Gym, who gave him a classic push/pull split routine with a cardio session. Use this routine to build a shredded upper body, because as Alcott says, “Leg day is overrated”.

 PUSH SESSION

• Ski-Erg x 30,25,20,15,10,5 calories
• Shoulder press x 20
• Push-ups x 20
• Triceps push-downs X 20 

PULL SESSION

• Ski-Erg x 5,10,15,20,25,30 calories
• Chin-ups x 12
• Curls x 12
• Lat pulldown x 12

CARDIO BOXING SESSION

• Bag work x 1min
• Throws to sky x 1min
• Battle ropes x 8 rounds

PAD WORK x 6mins

• Jabs x 20 secs
• Hooks x 20 secs
• Uppercuts x 20 secs                                                                                                    No rest

PUSH AND PULL SESSION

• 1A Ski-Erg x 1 min
• 1B DB lateral raise x 12
• 1C Face pulls x 12
• 1D DB hammer curls x 12                                                                                              X 5 sets

• 2A Ski-Erg x 30secs
• 2B Arnie Press x 12
• 2C DB Frontal Raise X 12
• 2D Pronated cable rows x 12                                                                                       X 5 sets

---

Dylan’s nutrition plan

Alcott’s diet plan was a simple high-protein, complex-carb regimen that allowed him to build muscle while shredding fat:

• Prepackaged high-protein meals x 2 per day
• Protein shakes x 2 per day.                                                                                                   
  

  ---

Editorial Director: Christopher Riley

Photography: Michael Comninus

Styling: Grant Pearce

Grooming: Max Serrano

Head of Social: Arielle Katos

Art Direction: Cathryn Zhang & Evan Lawrence

Video: Jasper Karolewski

Transport: KIA Australia

Shot on location at One Playground, Marrickville (cover) and Acero Gym, Kensington, NSW.  

The post Dylan Alcott can’t be stopped appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

The Paris Olympics also just happened to be Australia’s best ever, in terms of gold medals. Aussie athletes claimed 18 golds, ahead of every other prior Olympic campaign. This was to go with 53 total medals – the nation’s second most ever – and a fourth placed finish on the medal table – again, the second-best result in the nation’s history.

Evidently, a lot has happened over the last two-and-a-half weeks, as you would expect from an international sporting event that brings together more than 10,000 athletes to compete in over 300 events. Still, in an Olympics filled with spectacular moments, there were a few that stood out – and we’re revisiting them one last time.

The opening ceremony shakes things up

INSTAGRAM | @paris2024

The Paris Olympics made a point of differentiating itself right from the start by becoming the first Games to hold its opening ceremony outside of a stadium. Instead, athletes paraded down the river Seine on boats before arriving at the Trocadero. The ceremony itself featured a number of homages to the city of Paris, with segments dedicated to fashion, love, lights and a peculiar blue man – okay, we’re still a little confused about that last one.

Day 1: The most successful opening day in Australian Olympic history

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

Australians didn’t have to wait long for the medals to start flooding in. Those waking up on the morning of July 27^th were greeted by the news that Australia was on top of the medal table, winning three gold and two silver medals overnight. Grace Brown kicked things off with gold in the women’s road cycling time trial, Ariarne Titmus won the ‘race of the century’ in the women’s 400m freestyle, and the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay team won their fourth consecutive gold medal. All on day one.

Day 3: O’Callaghan trumps Titmus in a race for the ages

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

What happens when the swimmers who have recorded the two fastest ever times in an event go head-to-head? We get one of the best races at the Olympics, that’s what. Ultimately, it was Mollie O’Callaghan who emerged victorious over world record holder Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 200m freestyle in a memorable 1-2 finish.

The Matildas complete the comeback

INSTAGRAM | @matildas

The Matildas did not have the tournament they wanted, but the team did pull off one of the greatest comebacks football has ever seen during their group stage match against Zambia. Down 2-5 with less than 30 minutes remaining in the second half, the Matildas clawed their way back to win 6-5 and briefly reignite their medal hopes.

Nada Hafez competes while seven months pregnant

INSTAGRAM | @nada_hafez

The African champion in women’s sabre fencing, Nada Hafez competed – and won a duel – in Paris while seven months pregnant. Making it to the Olympics is hard enough when you only need to worry about your own health and fitness, to do so while expecting deserves major kudos.

Day 5: They really swam in the Seine

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

We don’t think any Parisians actually ended up emptying their bowels into their city’s most famous body of water, but Games organisers’ much publicised and much criticised plans to hold long distance swimming events in the Seine went ahead anyway. Before the Olympics, it had been illegal to swim in the Seine for 100 years due to the danger it posed to human health. Extensive – and expensive – efforts were made to clean up the river for the Olympics, and events did go ahead eventually, but not without a few athletes contracting E. coli infections.

Day 7: Cam McEvoy defies father time

INSTAGRAM | @cam_mcevoy

Cam McEvoy’s Olympic career looked all but over after Tokyo 2020, where he crashed out of both the 50m and 100m freestyle events in the heat stages. Then, at age 30, he won his first Olympic gold medal while pointing to his stripped-down training regime as the reason why.

Kaylee McKeown does the double-double

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

By winning gold in the 200m backstroke on day seven, Kaylee McKeown became the first Australian athlete – and first backstroker – to pull-off the double-double. That is, winning gold in the same two individual events in consecutive Olympics. The feat immediately moves McKeown into greatest Australia Olympian discussions, and at just 23 years of age, it’s unlikely that she’s finished winning medals.

Saya Sakakibara wins gold for her brother

INSTAGRAM | @sayasakakibara

Kai Sakakibara was one of BMX racing’s brightest young stars before a mid-race crash resulted in a brain injury that prematurely ended his sporting career. His sister, Saya, took the reins by becoming one the world’s best BMX racers. After crashing out in the semi finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Saya held her nerve to take gold in Paris. Winning all seven of her races along the way, she celebrated with her brother after the final in one of the best feel-good stories of the Games.

Simone Biles makes a triumphant return

INSTAGRAM | @simonebiles

After famously pulling out of Tokyo 2020 with a case of the twisties, Simone Biles returned to gold medal-winning form in Paris. The American gymnast took home four medals from this year’s Games, re-establishing her claim to being the USA’s – and perhaps the world’s – greatest ever gymnast.

Day 8: Léon Marchand looks like the second coming of Michael Phelps

INSTAGRAM | @leon.marchand31

Apart from the great Michael Phelps and Russian gymnast Vitaly Scherbo, no athlete has won more gold medals in individual events at a single Olympics than Léon Marchand. The Frenchmen took gold in the 200m breaststroke, 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley and 400m individual medley, all in front of his home crowd. Assuming he stays the course and wins a few more medals at future Olympics, he could end up with the second most gold medals of all time – Phelps is untouchable with 23, but second place only has a comparatively meagre nine.

Day 9: Novak Djokovic completes tennis

INSTAGRAM | @djokernole

Before Paris 2024, the only accolade that had eluded Novak Djokovic throughout his career was an Olympic gold medal. But no longer. Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles final to complete his ‘golden slam’ (winning all four grand slams and a gold medal) and he was visibly emotional after doing so – a rarity for the typically composed legend.

Day 10: Noemie Fox makes it a Fox trifecta in canoe slalom

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

Heading into Paris, Jess Fox was the favourite to win gold in both the C1 and K1 slalom, so it wasn’t too shocking when she did in fact win both. What was surprising was that she was eliminated in the first knockout round of the kayak cross, only for her younger sister Noemie – competing at her first Olympics – to assume the mantle and win a gold medal of her own. Jess was, as you’d expect, ecstatic. The elder Fox jumped into the slalom course to celebrate with her sister, all while their father commentated the event.

Noah Lyles backs up his talk

INSTAGRAM | @nojo18

Noah Lyles had a target on his back throughout the Paris Olympics after making an enemy of NBA fans by – rightfully, mind you – pointing out that NBA champions do not have the right to proclaim themselves ‘world champions’ after winning what is ostensibly a North American title. It’s rare that an athlete’s own country will root against them, but that’s what Lyles was faced with. Rather than succumb to the pressure, he backed up his talk by winning the 100m sprint by a margin of just 0.005 seconds.

Day 11: Arisa Trew becomes Australia’s youngest ever gold medallist

INSTAGRAM | @ausolympicteam

In an accomplishment that will make anyone feel old, 14-year-old Arisa Trew won gold in the women’s skateboarding park. The victory made Trew Australia’s youngest ever gold medallist, prompting news outlets and overbearing parents around the country to ask ‘what were you doing at 14?’

Teahupo’o makes an impression, 16,000km from Paris

Getty Images | Jerome Brouillet

Not every event at the Paris Olympics took place in Paris. Sailing events were held in Marseille, football and basketball games took place in various cities across metropolitan France, and the cycling road races had to start in the countryside before finishing in the city. None were further away from Paris than surfing though. Held at the iconic Teahupo’o reef break in Tahiti – which is nominally a self-governing French overseas territory, albeit almost 16,000km from Paris – Olympic surfing events gave viewers a glimpse into a hidden gem on the other side of the world. It also provided the scene for one of the Games’ most memorable photos, with a high-flying Gabriel Medina dismount earning him the nickname ‘the flying surfer’.

Armand Duplantis breaks a world record for fun

INSTAGRAM | @mondo_duplantis

Mondo Duplantis had already secured a gold medal by clearing 6 metres on his first attempt in the men’s pole vault final. Then seemingly for fun, he decided to raise the bar to 6.10 metres, cleared it, and then raised it again to 6.25 metres for a shot at breaking his own world record. Putting on a show for the crowd, Duplantis cleared the height on his third attempt, once again pushing the boundaries of human athleticism and etching his name into history.

Day 12: Gold rush

INSTAGRAM | @worldathletics

By this point in the Olympics, Australia was already sitting pretty towards the top of the medal table with 14 golds. Then came the single most successful day in Australian Olympic history. August 7^th featured four gold medals for Australia. Matt Wearn in the men’s dinghy sailing, Keegan Palmer in men’s skateboarding park, the men’s track cyclists in team pursuit and Nina Kennedy in women’s pole vault all won gold within a three-hour period, while the mixed race walk relay team and Matt Denny added some bronze medals. Will there ever be another day like it for Australia?

Day 13: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone makes it look easy

INSTAGRAM | @sydneymclaughlin16

Besides Mondo Duplantis, no one at Paris 2024 made breaking a world record look easier than Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. The 400-metre hurdler improved her previous world record in the event by a full 0.28 seconds, beating the silver medallist by a whopping 1.50 seconds. This race was never in doubt.

Cindy Ngamba wins first ever medal for the refugee team

INSTAGRAM | @cindyngamba

Founded in 2016, the Refugee Olympic Team was created to accommodate athletes who are either without a nation or are unable to compete for the nation of their citizenship. Their numbers have steadily grown since the team’s introduction at Rio 2016, but until Paris 2024, no refugee athlete had won an Olympic Medal. That was, until Cindy Ngamba claimed bronze in women’s boxing.

Born in Cameroon, Ngamba moved to the UK at the age of 11, but her immigration paperwork was later lost, making it difficult for her to gain UK citizenship. Openly homosexual, Ngamba has also chosen not to return to her native Cameroon, where homosexuality is illegal. As a result, competing for the refugee team was Ngamba’s only opportunity to go to the Olympics, and she made the most of it.

Mijaín López solidifies his legacy

INSTAGRAM | @paris2024

It’s extremely difficult for athletes who only compete in a single event to rack up a medal tally that can compare with the greatest Olympians of all time. Swimmers routinely win five or more medals at just a single Games, but for an athlete with only one event, that same achievement would take 16 years and five Olympics to match.

That’s exactly what Mijaín López has done though. The Cuban wrestler has won gold in wrestling at every Olympics since Beijing 2008 and claimed his fifth gold medal at the age of 41 in Paris.

Day 14: Imane Khelif wins gold, despite controversy

INSTAGRAM | @imane_khelif_10

After one of Imane Khelif’s opponents forfeited a match in less than one minute, confusion surrounding the Algerian boxer’s gender became the story of Paris 2024. Most of it was conjecture based on unfounded assumptions and misinformation, but it didn’t matter. Eventually, Khelif proved to be able to push through the controversy, winning gold in her event.

Day 15: Raygun causes a stir

Getty Images

In an unfortunate series of events that will forever live in infamy, Australia has found its next ‘lay down Sally’ in B-Girl Rachael Gunn – otherwise known as Raygun. The breaker qualified for the Olympics fair and square, but her performance was visibly not up to the standard set by her competitors, resulting in a handful of viral moments.

Steph Curry says ‘nuit, nuit’

INSTAGRAM | @stephencurry30

The first four games of Steph Curry’s Olympic debut made for a quiet tournament by the legendary shooter’s standards. Such is the strength of the USA basketball team that superstars like Curry often need to settle into smaller roles where their output is tempered for the sake of the team. Curry played his role well, but he hadn’t quite delivered a performance that would tell the untrained observer that he’s the greatest shooter of all time. He then scored 36 points in the semifinals and 24 in the gold medal match, providing the critical scoring burst the USA needed to win both games.

Curry left his mark on team USA in his first and likely only Olympic campaign, capping it off by wearing a shirt with the words ‘nuit nuit’ – French for night night – embossed on the front, emblematic of his signature celebration.

Day 16: Sifan Hassan finishes her packed schedule with gold

INSTAGRAM | @sifanhassan

At Tokyo 2020, Sifan Hassan won medals in the 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000 events and planned to keep all three on her Paris 2024 schedule while adding the marathon – something no other athlete had ever even attempted. Ultimately, Hassan dropped out of the 1,500m, but she still claimed bronze in both the 5,000m and 10,000m. Then, she embarked on her first attempt at the Olympic marathon, moving into first place down the home stretch and winning gold. With the combined distances of her three events in Paris, Hassan covered 62km in the space of just eight days, winning a medal on every occasion.

Related:

Why Olympic runners are wearing luxury watches on the track

The Olympics have never been thirstier

The post The best moments from the 2024 Paris Olympics appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

We’re only about halfway through the athletics events, while track cycling and canoe sprint still have a handful of medals to hand out, diving has a few finals left, breaking is about to announce itself to the world, and of course, there’s the ultimate closer, the Olympic marathon.

As you can see, there’s a lot on. But the Olympic schedule was clearly not catered to Australian time zones. For that reason, selecting which events you’re going to watch is an important task. You don’t want to commit to staying up past 12am or waking up at 4am unless it’s going to be worth it, but you also don’t want to risk missing out on a magical moment.

To put your mind at ease, we’ve hand-picked this week’s highlights, so you can focus on the events that matter. All dates and times are in AEST.

Friday night, August 9th

Swimming, men’s 10km – 3:30pm

Canoe sprint, women’s kayak double 500m final – 9:10pm

Aussie duo Aly Bull and Ella Beere will fancy themselves a chance at a medal here.

Canoe sprint, men’s kayak double 500m final – 9:50pm

Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen, gold medal winners in Tokyo, looking to win another Olympic title, albeit over a different distance.

Cycling, men’s sprint semifinals – 10:41pm

Aussie Matthew Richardson is still alive in the semifinals, with a gold medal looking like a real possibility.

Diving, women’s 3m springboard final – 11:00pm

Maddison Keeney has qualified for the final and despite specialising in synchronised events for most of her career, she has a chance at a medal.

INSTAGRAM | @matty_richo

Saturday morning, August 10th

Women’s basketball semifinal, Australia vs USA – 1:30am

A win would guarantee the Opals their first medal since London 2012, but team USA will be hard to beat.

Cycling, men’s sprint final – 2:00am

Should he win his semifinal, Matthew Richardson will race for gold here.

Men’s football gold medal match, France vs Spain – 2:00am

Two titans of the sport go head-to-head for the ultimate prize.

Cycling, women’s Madison final – 2:09am

Athletics, women’s 4x100m relay final – 3:30am

Athletics, men’s 4x100m relay final – 3:47am

Athletics, women’s 400m final – 4:00am

Athletics, women’s 10,000m final – 4:57am

Women’s beach volleyball bronze medal match, Australia vs Switzerland

Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar can add another medal to their tally after previously winning silver in Tokyo.

Women’s breaking final – 5:19am

Athletics, men’s 400m hurdles final – 5:45am

Saturday night, August 10th

Athletics, men’s marathon – 4:00pm

Golf, women’s individual final round – 5:00pm

Sport climbing, final lead – 8:35pm

Australian Oceana Mackenzie has qualified for the final round.

Diving, men’s 10m platform final – 11:00pm

Cassiel Rousseau might be Australia’s best remaining chance at a gold medal, as the reigning world champion in this event.

Women’s water polo gold medal match, Australia vs Spain – 11:35pm

The Stingers have defied the odds to reach only the second Olympic gold medal match in their history.

INSTAGRAM | @cassielrousseau

Sunday morning, August 11th

Women’s football gold medal match, USA vs Brazil – 1:00pm

Athletics, men’s 800m final – 3:05am

Athletics, women’s javelin final – 3:30am

Aussies Mackenzie Little and Kathryn Mitchell have both qualified for the final.

Athletics, women’s 100m hurdles final – 3:35am

Athletics, men’s 5,000m final – 3:50am

Stewart McSweyn has qualified in an incredible effort, but don’t count on a medal here.

Athletics, women’s 1500m final – 4:15am

Jess Hull made it through the semifinals with the second fastest time. She’s a strong chance of a medal, maybe even gold.

Breaking, men’s final – 5:19am

Men’s basketball gold medal game, France vs USA – 5:30am

INSTAGRAM | @kingjames

Sunday night, August 11th

Women’s marathon – 4:00pm

Sinead Diver finished tenth in this event at Tokyo 2020 at age 44, becoming Australia’s oldest athletics competitor. Now 47, she’ll extend her record.

Cycling, men’s keirin finals – 9:23pm

Women’s basketball gold medal game – 11:30pm

Hopefully the Opals are in this one. The last event on the program.

Monday morning, August 12th

Closing ceremony – 5:00am

Related:

Who are Australia’s best remaining gold medal hopes?

24 athletes to watch at the 2024 Paris Olympics

The post Every Olympic event you won’t want to miss this weekend, Aug 9-11 appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.

In the weeks leading up to Olympic Games, the powers that be announced that the dorms in the Olympic Village (much like the dorms back in Tokyo in 2020) had been furnished with “anti-sex beds” made from intricate, origami-like reworking of cardboard, put in place to keep the athletes focused more on the glory, and less on glory holes.

The truth is that the “anti-sex beds” were actually introduced as environmentally-friendly fixtures that can be broken down and recycled after the athletes vacate the dorms, as a part of a wider initiative to make the Games more sustainable. But whatever the reason for them, if there’s anybody who can throw down on a cardboard box, it’s an Olympian. And if you’re anything like me, and you’re more of a visual learner, Olympic diver Tom Daley – this year’s silver medallist in the men’s synchronised 10m platform – was more than happy to take to Instagram to demonstrate just how strong the beds were, and exactly how much movement they can withstand.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tom Daley (@tomdaley)

It was also noted that the popular dating/hookup app Grindr would turn off its location services in the Olympic Village. Upon first thought, it seemed to me that it would be terribly inconvenient to not know whether someone was 30 feet or 30 km away if you were looking to faire l’amour, but upon reevaluation, it was actually for the safety of the numerous athletes who may not be out, or may be from countries where it is still illegal to be openly gay. And for that, we must salute them. Great job, Olympics!

But despite – or perhaps in spite of all its precautions – Paris 2024 is turning out to be the horniest Olympic Games I have ever witnessed.

First there was Italy, home of the Oscar-nominated, deeply horny film Call Me By Your Name, and of 23-year-old, 6’6″ Team Italia Olympic swimmer Thomas Ceccon (he’s an Aquarius for those who are keeping up), who won bronze in his 4x100m freestyle relay, and gold in the men’s 100m backstroke event. But it wasn’t his performance that got everyone talking. Sure, some people cared about “performance” at the “Olympics” but for most fans, it was the medal ceremony where he raised his hands in triumph, showing a sliver of his undercarriage, the V-cut that so many men work hard for (and lust after) to the crowd. It was magnificent. It was brilliant. It was tres magnifique.

MANAN VATSYAYANA I Getty Images

Meanwhile, across die stadt, Germany’s Leo Neugebauer the 24 year-old Gemini who is also 6’6″ garnered a silver medal for his 8,748/10,000 points (whatever that means) in the Olympic decathlon, but it should be known, if it were up to me, he would have won gold.

A new bombshell has entered the villa—Germany’s Leo Neugebauer pic.twitter.com/bRdzFQzaci

— Meech (@MediumSizeMeech) August 2, 2024

The USA’s very own Stephen Nedoroscik, the 25 year-old two-time bronze medalist – dubbed “Pommel Horse Guy” by the internet – set the internet ablaze when he took off his glasses and gave one of the most rousing performances of pommeling on a horse I’ve seen since I learned what pommel horse was late last week. I can safely say, I was entertained!

The fanfare didn’t stop there. France’s 21-year-old Anthony Ammirati was looking to qualify for the finals, but sadly had a big disappointment – a huge, girthy disappointment – during the pole vaulting event when he prematurely evacuated during his vault and his, ahem, pole connected with and dislodged the bar, impacting his score, causing him not to advance to the finals. I guess that snake tattoo was foreshadowing.

If @nastypig and @bikeathletics aren’t fighting over sponsoring Anthony Ammirati right now, somebody’s not doing their job. pic.twitter.com/89c4Q5bn47

— Rob Salerno (@robsalerno) August 3, 2024

While his Olympic dream may be over for another four years, the global coverage of Ammirati’s package has led to him being offered a six-figure deal with an adult website. So, you know. Silver linings.

Not to be outdone, the cup runneth over for the amount of thirst over Korea’s Yeji Kim who set a new world record in the women’s 25m pistol. Fortunately for her, but unfortunately for thirsty fans, Kim is married with a family, and if her markswomanship is any sign of things, you do not want to get on her bad side.

Perhaps the most endearing quality about the Olympics being set in the City of Lights during a heatwave is that for as much as the competitors are causing us to swoon and froth at the mouth over their rock hard physiques and good looks, they’re also inspiring us with their athletic prowess and determination. Because what could be more satisfying than watching somebody do the one thing they’re best at?

Speaking of determination, to round things out, we finish as we started, with Tom Daley giving us a look at the sweater he’d been knitting during his downtime at the Games.

Is it hot in here, or is it just wool in a 35-degree Parisian summer?

Via Men’s Health US

Related:

Everything you need to know about the 2024 Paris Olympics

Every Olympic event you won’t want to miss this week, Aug 5-9

The post The Olympics have never been thirstier appeared first on Men's Health Magazine Australia.