International Canoe Federation

Participating in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, David Rolfe went on to win a bronze medal in the 4x100m individual medley swimming event. It had been a culmination of a long journey for the Inverell-born athlete, who qualified for the Australian Paralympic team only two years previously.

A decade on, Rolfe – who competed in the two Paracanoe events at the 2010 Oceania Open on its first day – is now spreading the word about the application of Paracanoe to the Paralympic calendar in the 2016 Rio Games. “The K1 200 race itself as a race is still very new in Australia and has only been around for three months,” he enthused, and his plan is “for me to be a messenger, to let the younger people with a disability know that it’s there. Kayaking is such a fun and wonderful sport.”

Rolfe had actually given up swimming three years after his bronze medal win, but later took up kayaking in 2009. “I first got into a kayak in 2009, I was a bit conscious of my weight and had to keep myself active to have a better quality of life,” he said. “Kayaking was always my sport. I had been water rafting and white water kayaking before my accident but because kayaking wasn’t anywhere near Paralympic status then, I took up swimming which was the only other water sport in the programme.”

He may have an Olympic bronze medal, but Rolfe is still relishing his role as an ambassador in spreading the word about kayaking hopefully making its Paralympic debut in Rio in 2016.