 Nikki Ayers in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 3 March 1991 |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Rowing |
| Club | Capital Lakes Rowing Club |
Nikki Ayers is an Australian Paralympic rower. She was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. [1] Ayers and Jed Altschwager won a gold medal at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Ayers was born 3 March 1991. [2] She grew up in Narooma, New South Wales and moved to Canberra to study for a nursing degree at University of Canberra. [3] Ayers played rugby union and captained the ACT Women's Brumbies 7's team. In 2016, during a rugby union game, a tackle led to her dislocating her knee. The injury severed a major artery and nerve damage caused her to lose feeling in her foot. [2] She underwent 16 operations to save her leg and repair her knee. [4] In 2021, she worked as a registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at The Canberra Hospital and has a postgraduate Diploma in Critical Care.
Ayers is openly lesbian. She was one of the initial ambassadors of a program called "Thrive With Pride" started by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, Ayers was an ambassador for Pride House Paris 2024. [5]
Ayers competed twice in the surf boat George Bass Marathon along the South Coast. [3] Ayers' road to para rowing started through a 2017 Train4Tokyo session at the Australian Institute of Sport. [3] She commenced serious rowing training in January 2018 and was selected in the PR3 mixed coxed four at the 2018 World Rowing Championships where the crew finished fifth. [4]
She has won PR3 Women's Single Scull at Australian Rowing Championships in 2019 and 2021. [2]
At the 2020 Summer Paralympics, Ayers was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ along with Tom Birtwhistle, James Talbot, Alexandra Viney. Their coxswain was Renae Domaschenz. They qualified for the final after winning their Repechage with time of 7:06.98 but came fourth in the final and failed to win a medal. [6]
Ayers moved to Adelaide after completing her midwifery studies in Canberra in to train with Jed Altschwager in the PR3 Mixed Double. [7]
Ayers with Jed Altschwager won the gold medal in the PR3 Mixed Double at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade and the 2024 Summer Paralympics. [8] They became the first Australian Paralympic rowers to win a gold medal. [9]
Evan George O'Hanlon, is an Australian Paralympic athlete, who competes mainly in category T38 sprint events. He has won five gold medals at two Paralympic Games – 2008 Beijing and 2012 London. He also represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a silver medal and a bronze medal respectively. In winning the bronze medal in the Men's 100m T38 at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, O'Hanlon became Australia's most successful male athlete with a disability. His bronze medal took him to 12 medals in five world championships – one more than four-time Paralympian Neil Fuller.
Kathryn Ross is an Australian Paralympic rower. She is a four-time world champion who has participated at four Paralympics from 2008 to 2020, winning a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. She set a world's best time in the PR2 1X event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships.
Jessica Gallagher is an Australian Paralympic alpine skier, track and field athlete, tandem cyclist and rower. 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.
Erik Horrie is an Australian wheelchair basketball player and a five-time world champion rower. He was a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team. Switching to rowing in 2011, he made an immediate impact in the sport, first winning the NSW State Rowing Championships and then the National Rowing Championships in Adelaide. He has won silver medals at the 2012, 2016, 2020 Summer Paralympics and a bronze at the 2024 Summer Paralympics. He won gold medals at the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Championships. Horrie has selected for the 2024 Paris Paralympics - his fourth Games.
James Michael Apsley Turner, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and soccer player with cerebral palsy. He has represented Australia as part of the Australia Paralympic soccer team, the ParaRoos, and was its player of the year in 2013. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he won the Men's 800m T36 in a world record time of 2:02.39. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2020 Toyko Paralympics. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, he won two gold medals including a world record in the 400m T36.
Emily Craig is a British lightweight Olympic champion and three-time world champion rower.
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Grace Elizabeth Sorrel Clough is a former British Paralympic rower who competed in the mixed coxed four event. She won multiple gold medals at the World Rowing Championships and World Rowing Cup alongside a gold at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. Clough was inducted into the Sheffield Legends Walk of Fame in 2016 and named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2017.
Harrison Nichols is an Australian rower of the Australian Olympic Rowing Team, set to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics. He is best known for winning the 2023 double-gold medal in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four at the International Para Regatta in Gavirate, Italy and qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics by placing in the World Rowing Championships, Belgrade 2023.
Erin Kennedy is a British Paralympic coxswain with the GB Rowing Team. Erin is a three time World Champion, three time European Champion and World Best Time holder in the PR3 Mixed coxed four. She has won every international competition and is the first and only coxswain to ever hold the Paralympic, World and European titles at the same time.
Thomas "Birty" William Birtwhistle is an Australian rower. He was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ team in 2020 Tokyo and at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
James Talbot is an Australian Paralympic rower. He was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Alexandra Viney is an Australian Paralympic rower. She was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Renae Domaschenz is an Australian rowing coxswain and coach. She was the coxswain in the PR3 Mix 4+ at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Jed Altschwager is an Australian Paralympic rower. He teamed with Nikki Ayers to win a gold medal at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and they won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Susannah Lutze is an Australian Paralympic rower. She competed at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Tobiah "Toby" Goffsassen is an Australian rower. He was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ team at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Anita is an Indian para rower from Rajasthan. She qualified for the 2024 Summer Paralympics along with Narayana Konganapalle at the World Rowing Asian and Oceanian Olympic and Paralympic Qualification 2024. She won a silver medal in the PR3 mixed doubles sculls earlier, along with Narayana, at the 2022 Asian Para Games at Hangzhou, China.
Gemma Wollenschlaeger is an American pararower. She represented the United States at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Hannah Cowap is an Australian rower. She was selected to compete at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, as a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ team.
