With three months until the Paris Paralympics, hundreds of Australian athletes are in the final stages of their preparations. But Australia will not be represented in all sports. Blind Football and Goalball are two sports that have missed selection and are now shifting their focus to Brisbane 2032.
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00:00 Blind football is always a crowd favourite at the Paralympics.
00:06 But Australia has never competed in the sport at the Games.
00:11 Australian men's team player 51-year-old Shahram Jazan is hoping to change that.
00:16 This is one of my wishes.
00:18 I don't know if I can be able to participate because as you know I am the grandpa.
00:25 When you basically run on the field you feel free.
00:29 The Australian women's goalball team has competed at five Paralympics but missed out on qualifying
00:35 for Paris.
00:36 Tokyo Paralympian Brodie Benson is determined to help the team grow.
00:41 It's like my place to shine.
00:43 It's like my place is a safe place that's so supportive and it just feels like a home
00:49 and a community.
00:50 Goalball is a unique sport.
00:52 There is no Olympic equivalent.
00:55 Unlike blind football it struggles to access funding, meaning that many of the athletes
01:00 self-fund to compete.
01:02 We've got eight Paralympic sports currently that are not funded from a high performance
01:06 perspective and that's based on their prior history in terms of their performance.
01:11 Australia is likely to be represented in only 16 of the 22 sports at this year's Games.
01:18 Paralympics Australia wants to ensure the likes of blind football and goalball are successful
01:23 in Brisbane 2032.
01:25 We're really confident and working closely with our system partners and key stakeholders
01:31 at the Australian Institute of Sport to ensure that those programs have support moving into
01:36 the future.
01:37 This includes funding, coaching support, classification opportunities for new athletes, talent identification
01:44 programs and more chances to compete internationally.
01:50 There'll be lots of 10, 15, 20 year old athletes now or emerging athletes that will be in prime
01:58 peak performance in eight years time.
02:01 To be able to put our squad into say even a world championships seven years out from
02:07 a home Paralympics in Brisbane would be a massive thing for our squad.
02:11 Building that base of players now gives us plenty of time to expand them and grow them
02:15 and help them continue to develop so we have a really strong team moving forwards.
02:22 And even for those athletes who might not be in Brisbane there is still the opportunity
02:27 to be a part of the team.
02:29 I will be able to do some coaching, mentoring or taking the team to the next stage.
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