So You Want To Be A Professional Athlete…
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So You Want To Be A Professional Athlete…
Take your first step today and click play.
Episode Eight
With the Paralympics just around the corner, we welcome five-time Paralympian Ryley Batt to the studio
Find out how he went from getting around on a skateboard and refusing to use a wheelchair to being the greatest wheelchair rugby player the world has ever seen. Hosted by Tony Farley and Rosie Trinity Catholic College Auburn.
Episode Eight
With the Paralympics just around the corner, we welcome five-time Paralympian Ryley Batt to the studio
Find out how he went from getting around on a skateboard and refusing to use a wheelchair to being the greatest wheelchair rugby player the world has ever seen. Hosted by Tony Farley and Rosie Trinity Catholic College Auburn.
Ryley Batt
Ryley Batt is one of the greatest wheelchair rugby players the world has ever seen. He was born on 22 May 1989 without legs and had surgery to separate his webbed fingers.
As a child, Ryley thought wheelchairs were for disabled people. For a long time – 12 years, in fact – Ryley avoided using a wheelchair. All he wanted was to be one of the boys, so he used a skateboard to get around instead.
And were it not for a timely visit by two-time Paralympian Brad Dubberley to Ryley’s school in Port Macquarie, NSW, he may still be rolling around on four wheels.
Just three years after meeting Brad, Ryley made his Paralympic debut as the youngest ever wheelchair rugby player to compete at the Paralympic Games.
He reached the Paralympic podium for the first time four years later at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, and led the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, to their first Paralympic gold medal in 2012. From 2006 to 2010, he was the national team’s most valuable player.
He lives in the New South Wales city of Port Macquarie, and leads the New South Wales Gladiators and the San Diego Sharp Edge in the United States.
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Ryley Batt
Ryley Batt is one of the greatest wheelchair rugby players the world has ever seen. He was born on 22 May 1989 without legs and had surgery to separate his webbed fingers.
As a child, Ryley thought wheelchairs were for disabled people. For a long time – 12 years, in fact – Ryley avoided using a wheelchair. All he wanted was to be one of the boys, so he used a skateboard to get around instead.
And were it not for a timely visit by two-time Paralympian Brad Dubberley to Ryley’s school in Port Macquarie, NSW, he may still be rolling around on four wheels.
Just three years after meeting Brad, Ryley made his Paralympic debut as the youngest ever wheelchair rugby player to compete at the Paralympic Games.
He reached the Paralympic podium for the first time four years later at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, and led the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers, to their first Paralympic gold medal in 2012. From 2006 to 2010, he was the national team’s most valuable player.
He lives in the New South Wales city of Port Macquarie, and leads the New South Wales Gladiators and the San Diego Sharp Edge in the United States.
