 Nikki Ayers in 2019 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 3 March 1991 |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Rowing |
Medal record | |
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.
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 works as a registered nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at The Canberra Hospital and has a postgraduate Diploma in Critical Care.
Ayers competed twice in the gruelling 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 cox 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. [5]
Ayers moved to Adelaide after completing her midwifery studies in Canberra in to train with Jed Altschwager in the PR3 Mixed Double. [6]
Ayers with Jed Altschwager won the gold medal in the PR3 Mixed Double at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade. [7]
Ayers is a member of the Capital Lakes Rowing Club.
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.
Carol Lynn Cooke, is a Canadian-born Australian cyclist, swimmer and rower. A keen swimmer, she was part of the Canadian national swimming team and was hoping to be selected for the 1980 Moscow Olympics before her country boycotted the games. She moved to Australia in 1994, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, and took up rowing in 2006, in which she narrowly missed out on being part of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. She then switched to cycling, where she won a gold medal at the 2012 London Paralympics, two gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Gavin Bellis is an Australian Paralympic rower. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in rowing and with Kathryn Ross won gold medals at the 2013, 2014 and 2015 World Rowing Championships. He partnered Ross at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
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 gold medals at the 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018 World Rowing Championships.
Kathleen Murdoch is an Australian Paralympic rower. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Danielle "Dani" Hansen is an American rower. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hansen has won a gold medal and five silver medals from the World Rowing Championships and a silver medal from the 2016 Paralympic Games. She is a Royal Canadian Henley Regatta champion, a four-time Head of the Charles Regatta champion, and two-time U.S. national champion. She was a member of the Paralympic Great Eight at the 2016 Head of the Charles Regatta consisting of gold, silver, and bronze Rio Paralympic medalists from Great Britain, United States, and Canada.
Australia participated at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021. It sent its largest away team - 179 athletes to a Summer Paralympics. Australia finished eighth on the gold medal table and sixth on the total medals table.
Anna Corderoy is a British rowing coxswain.
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.
Giedrė Rakauskaitė is a British Paralympic rower who is a triple World champion in the mixed coxed four.
Oliver "Ollie" Stanhope is a British Paralympic rower who competes in the coxed four in international level events. He is the son of former rower Richard Stanhope.
Thomas "Birty" William Birtwhistle is an Australian rower. He was a member of the PR3 Mix 4+ team at the 2020 Tokyo 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.
Renae Domaschenz is an Australian rowing coxswain and coach. She was the coxswain in the PR3 Mix 4+ at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Josiane Dias de Lima is a Brazilian para-rower in sculling events. She has won various accolades in her main event, the PR2 mixed double sculls, including a bronze medal with Elton Santana at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, and a gold medal with Lucas Pagani at the 2007 World Rowing Championships. Lima has competed at every Paralympic Games that has featured rowing, and won Brazil's first Olympic rowing medal with Santana. She has also competed in the women's single sculls and indoor rowing.
Jed Altschwager is an Australian Paralympic rower. He teamed with Nikki Ayers to win a gold medal at the 2023 World Rowing Championships.
