In wheelchair basketball, four Darwin Salties players have been formally welcomed into Australia’s Paralympic team, ahead of the Paris games. It is less than two months until the Australian Rollers head to France, and the Salties players are using their final charge to prepare for the world stage.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Shooting for gold, these Darwin salties are aiming for a national wheelchair basketball
00:07title before jetting off to the Paris Paralympics.
00:11The Aussies hoping for their first medals since 2012.
00:15We just want to play and get as good of a result as we can in the pool games to make
00:18our crossover as easy as possible and win that quarterfinal and then whatever happens
00:21after that happens.
00:22But that's the game we've struggled with the last couple of majors and it's definitely
00:26the one that we really need to win.
00:28Blair, a veteran of four Paralympics, offering some advice for Salty's team mate and new
00:33Australian roller, Jalen Brown.
00:35Just keep a clear mind, don't get too stressed out or overwhelmed about being your first
00:43Paralympics.
00:44That's probably the main advice that they've given me.
00:47Halfway through the regular wheelchair basketball season, the Salty's are today taking on the
00:51Spartans who will have their own Australian representative in Ethan Laird.
00:56It's an on-court rivalry that will be set aside on the global stage.
01:00I feel like we're pretty good at kind of brushing it off.
01:03Last week we played against Perth the day before we flew into a selection camp and obviously
01:09there's words out on court, nothing too bad, but straight as soon as that's done it's over.
01:13Next job we're a team, we're part of the Australian team.
01:15Meanwhile, one of the Salty's youngest players is dreaming of his own chance to represent
01:20his country.
01:21I've lived up here my whole life but I just played with WA because we didn't have a junior
01:26side.
01:27So I went down and played with WA to get more game time, improving my game so I can play
01:32more minutes in the bigger leagues I guess.
01:36Paralympians of Paris and beyond, ready for next month's opening ceremony.