Australia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Paralympics which was held in Sydney. Australia competed in the games between 18 and 29 October. The team consisted of 285 athletes in 18 sports with 148 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to a Games. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games since its inception. Australia finished at the top of the medal tally with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals to total 149 medals for the games. This was the first time and the only time to date that Australia has finished on top of either an Olympic or Paralympic medal tally.
Australia sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The country sent 167 athletes in 13 sports and 122 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to an away Games. The team sent to Beijing was described as the emergence of the new generation of Australian athletes with 56 percent of the team attending their first Paralympic Games. The delegation's chef de mission was Darren Peters.
Paralympics Australia (PA) previously called the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) (1998–2019) is the National Paralympic Committee in Australia for the Paralympic Games movement. It oversees the preparation and management of Australian teams that participate at the Summer Paralympics and the Winter Paralympics.
At the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Australia sent ever of 11 competitors to compete against 42 other nations with a total of 502 competitors making these Paralympics the largest ever with only 39 countries competing at Torino in 2006. Of these other nations, 2010 was the first winter paralympics for Argentina, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, Russian Federation, and Serbia. The delegation also consisted of 3 sighted guides and 17 support staff. This was the largest delegation Australia had sent to a Winter Paralympics. Australia has participated in every winter Paralympics. In 2010, Dominic Monypenny became the fourth Australian athlete to participate in both the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games, the others being Kyrra Grunnsund, Anthony Bonaccurso, and Michael Milton. In the lead-up to the 2010 winter Games, nine of the 11 Australian athletes had recorded top 10 finishes in Paralympic, world cup or world championship competition in their class.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London Games.
Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes. Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.
Wheelchair rugby is a sport with national representation at the Paralympic games. The Australian Team is known as the 'Steelers'.
Jessica Gallagher is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier, track and field athlete, and tandem cyclist. She was Australia's second female Winter Paralympian, and the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She competed at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, where she won a bronze medal in the Women's Giant Slalom Visually Impaired.
Christopher John Nunn, OAM is an Australian athletics coach. He was the head coach of the Australian athletics team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
Gregory Neil Hartung AO is a leading Australian and international sport administrator. He has an extensive and distinguished career in sport particularly in terms of administration and journalism. He was President of the Australian Paralympic Committee from 1997 to 2013 and served as vice-president of the International Paralympic Committee 2009–13.
Darren Peters was the CEO of the Australian Paralympic Committee and CEO of Rowing Australia.
Jason Scott Hellwig is a leading Australian sport administrator. He was the chief executive officer of the Australian Paralympic Committee from 2010 to 2015.
Paul Bird, OAM is an Australian athlete, swimmer, Paralympic gold and silver medalist, and sports administrator.
Australia sent nine competitors to the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. The delegation also consisted of two sighted guides and 15 support staff. The team won two bronze medals. Toby Kane won a bronze medal in the men's Super combined standing, and Jessica Gallagher and guide Christian Geiger won one in the women's giant slalom visually impaired event.
Disabled Wintersport Australia (DWA) was established in 1978 as the Australian Disabled Skiers Federation. Its current mission is "to promote and foster the advancement of participation by people with a disability in wintersport both in Australia and overseas". DWA is a member of the Australian Paralympic Committee. DWA plays a major role in the development of Australian athletes that compete at the Winter Paralympics.
Australia competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. Australia repeated its 2012 Summer Paralympics achievement in finishing fifth of the medal tally.
Tiffany Thomas Kane, is a retired Australian Paralympic swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, winning a gold and three bronze medals, and at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a further two bronze medals.
Antony "Tony" John Sainsbury OBE has been the chef de mission of the British Paralympic team at five Paralympic Games, and was the chef de mission of the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Australia sent a team of 12 athletes and three guides to the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, Korea. Australia finished 15th on the medal table and it was its fourth best medal performance at the Winter Paralympics.
Australia competed at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, China which took place between 4–13 March 2022. A team of ten athletes including two guides was announced on 2 February 2022 with two athletes - Rae Anderson and Josh Hanlon making their Winter Paralympics debut. Jonty O'Callaghan withdrew from the team after a severe training accident on 17 February 2022. Anderson represented Australia in athletics at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Melissa Perrine and Ben Tudhope were appointed team captains.
