Ryley Batt
 Ryley Batt in 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 22 May 1989 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair rugby | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 3.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | Australian Steelers (2003–current) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ryley Batt, OAM (born 22 May 1989)[1] is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He has won two gold and a silver medal at four Paralympic Games.
Biography
Ryley Douglas Batt was born on 22 May 1989 without legs and had surgery to separate his webbed fingers.[1][2] Up to the age of twelve, he did not use a wheelchair, preferring to move around on a skateboard.[1]
He was convinced to use a wheelchair when he saw a demonstration of wheelchair rugby at his school, and took up the sport shortly afterwards in that year.[1] He first participated in the Australian Steelers in 2002.[3] He was part of the national team at the 2004 Athens Games, where he was the youngest Paralympic rugby player in the world at the age of 15,[3] the 2008 Beijing Games, where the team won a silver medal,[4] and the 2012 London Games, when the team won a gold medal.[5]
From 2006 to 2010, he was the national team's most valuable player.[3]
He competed in the 2010 World Rugby Wheelchair Championships, where his team won a silver medal,[3] and he won the most valuable player award.[6] He was a member of the Australian team that won its first world championship gold medal at the 2014 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships at Odense, Denmark.[7]
He was a member of the team that retained its gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics after defeating the United States 59–58 in the final. [8]
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.[1]
Recognition
Batt was a finalist for the 2012 Australian Paralympian of the Year.[9] He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."[2]
In November 2014, he won three awards at the New South Wales Institute of Sport Awards – ClubsNSW Male Athlete of the Year, Office of Communities, Sport and Recreation Regional Athlete of the Year and Quest Serviced Apartments Team Athlete of the Year.[10]
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryley Batt. |
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Ryley Batt". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- 1 2 "Australia Day honours list 2014: in full". Daily Telegraph. 26 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
- 1 2 3 4 "Ryley Batt". Australian Athletes with a Disability. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ↑ "Athlete Search Results". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
- ↑ "Steelers win wheelchair rugby gold". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ↑ "Ryley Batt – Paralympic Games". Greater Port Macquarie Focus. 19 January 2012. Archived from the original on 4 June 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
- ↑ "Australia wins first ever IWRF World Championship". Australian Paralympic Committee News. 11 August 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
- ↑ Lees, Chris (19 September 2016). "Steelers double up with Paralympics gold". Sunshine Coast Daily. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- ↑ "Freney favourite to win top Paralympian". Australian Associated Press. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
- ↑ "Batt and Fox dominate NSWIS awards". New South Wales Institute of Sport News. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.