Rosemary Little

Rosemary Little

2016 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Little
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1982-08-27) 27 August 1982
Mackay, Queensland
Sport
Country  Australia
Sport Paralympic athletics
Medal record
Athletics
Paralympic Games
2012 London Women's 100m T34
IPC Athletics World Championships
2013 Lyon Women's 200m T34
2013 Lyon Women's 100m T34

Rosemary Little (born 27 August 1982) is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She won a bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and has also competed in handcycling. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics.[1]

Personal

Little was born on 27 August 1982 in Mackay, Queensland, and is from West Pennant Hills, New South Wales.[2][3] She has a brain injury as a result of a brain virus.[2] As of 2012, she is a student, enrolled at the University of Sydney in a program for occupational therapy while simultaneously enrolled at Macquarie University, where she is working on a degree in e-business.[2][4]

Little has represented Australia in hand-cycling.[2]

Athletics

Little is a T34 wheelchair racing competitor.[5] She started competing in athletics in 2003.[2] Originally classified T33,[2][6] she tried to qualify for the 2004 Summer Paralympics but missed the qualifying time by 0.02 seconds.[2][4] One of her pre-race rituals is to eat a banana and drink a Red Bull.[2] In 2011, she trained six days a week at Parramatta Park.[4]

Little competed in the 2011 City2Surf, where she collided with another competitor and damaged her racing wheelchair.[2][4] This put her 2012 Paralympic campaign at risk as she had to acquire the funds, around A$8,000, to get her wheelchair replaced before she could compete again.[2][7] Following a newspaper appeal, she found the funds to replace her chair.[7] She first represented Australia in 2012.[2] In 2012, she competed in Australia's Summer Down Under wheelchair circuit.[2] She competed in the 2012 Australian Athletics Championships, setting an unofficial record in the 100 metre event with a time of 20.60 seconds.[8] In July 2012, she competed at the United States Paralympic track and field trials, finishing second in the 100 metre event and third in the 200 metre event.[6] She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics.[2][3]

At the 2012 Summer Paralympics she competed in the Women's 100 m T34 and 200 m T34, both combined T33/T34 events. She pushed a T33 World Record time in her 100 m heat; she was then reclassified to T34 and her record annulled.[5] She won a bronze medal in the 100 m final.[9]

At the 2012 Paralympics in London

At the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, she won a silver medal in the Women's 200 m T34 and Women's 100 m T34.[10] After collecting the bronze medal she commented I have dystonia which causes spasms in my hands and that means that the 100m is never my favourite event because getting my arms back can be quite difficult. Today, for example, I missed the first 10 or so pushes and that's something that I have to learn to cope with. Hopefully the program for Rio includes the 400m and the 800m, but if that doesn’t happen I will keep working to do even better in the short sprints when we get there. [10] She attributed her improved performances to her new coach Louise Sauvage.[11]

At the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics Little competed in three T34 track events, the 100m, 400m and 800m. The 100m sprint was her first event on day three of the games. She placed 5th with a time of 19.05, commenting afterwards that it wasn't her best performance, "I had quite a bad start and the 100 not being my best event, I took a while to get going," she said.[12] In the 400m event she placed 4th with a time of 1:01.91 and the 800m she also placed 4th with a time of 2:04.10.

References

  1. ↑ "Australian Paralympic Athletics Team announced". Australian Paralympic Committee News, 2 August 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Rosemary Little | APC Corporate". Australia: Australian Paralympic Committee. 2012. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  3. 1 2 Chris Dutton (2012-06-06). "Canberra's Paralympic athletes aim for Games glory". Australian Capital Territory: Canberra Times. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Kembrey, Melanie (2011-10-05). "Athlete wants to get on the road again". Parramatta Sun. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  5. 1 2 "Two bronze to kick off athletics". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  6. 1 2 Today 17°C Tonight 7°C (2012-07-20). "Paralympian Rosemary Little set for London after US trial". Hills Shire Times. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  7. 1 2 Jahshan, Elias (2011-10-24). "Donations lead to new wheelchair for West Pennant Hills athlete". Hornsby & Upper North Shore Advocate. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  8. ↑ "World Records Fall at Australian Athletics Championships | IPC". International Paralympic Committee. 2012-07-20. Retrieved 2012-07-24.
  9. ↑ Results for Rosemary Little from the International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
  10. 1 2 "IPC13: O'Hanlon wins the Australian Flame their first GOLD". Athletics Australia News. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  11. ↑ "IPC13: Little joins Roeger on medal winners list in Lyon". Athletics Australia News. 21 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  12. ↑ "DailyTelegraph: Medal glory for athletes". Daily Telegraph News. 12 September 2016. Retrieved 9 Nov 2016.
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