'I felt I wasn't worthy': Para athletes on barriers in elite sport

Discrimination creating barriers to sporting success for our elite disabled athletes Sun 9 Aug 2026 at 6:17am At her debut Games in Paris, Nikki Ayers rowed herself into the record books, alongside Jed Altschwager, as the first Australians to win a gold medal in Para rowing. Despite this success, the now 35-year-old, initially decided to take a break from rowing after the Games due to a difficult relationship with a member of her support team. "[They] made me feel like I had less value, made me feel like I wasn't good enough," Ayers told ABC Sport. "At times I felt objectified, that I wasn't worthy of being anything more than someone who could win a gold medal." Ayers, who was nervous to disclose her experiences, spent several months talking to ABC Sport before coming to a decision to retire from rowing completely. Ayers is a partial leg amputee, is queer, and has experienced sexism and homophobia, alongside ableism. "[I want] people to realise the impact that it has so we can create change to stop it from happening," she said. "So, we can recognise women as the amazing [people] that we are and that we can contribute to society equally as well." The bravery and strength Ayers has shown is immense. "There just hasn't been the psychological safety for me at a level where I feel safe to pursue more within that sport," she said. "It's not an easy decision, especially as an athlete." It is a strength that she shares with one of Australia's veteran Paralympians, Danni Di Toro. Also, a proudly queer athlete, Di Toro has won 10 Australian Opens and competed in eight Paralympic Games across two sports. But that strength comes not from a specific event, but from a sporting landscape dominated by male athletes, coaches and managers. "It took me dealing with a lot of pretty average attitudes, that forced me to kind of be really firm," she told ABC Sport. "If you're a female and you're going up against men in positions of power and you don't feel confident, then that is a very scary environment." Di Toro and Ayers aren't alone; their experiences have been shared by many disabled athletes, who responded to the ABC's Elite Athletes in Australian Women's Sport survey. It found half of respondents who identified as living with a disability have experienced discrimination because of their impairment. Having to choose between rent and eating Despite some positive change across the Paralympic movement, there are still systemic issues that are holding many disabled athletes back from full participation in sport at all levels. From inequity around prize money to athletes having to personally fund their entire sports career, female disabled athletes can end up leaving sport entirely or cutting their careers short. For those competing in sports included in the Paralympics, funding can be more reliable, but there are still disparities. Unlike Olympians, who have been receiving medal incentive payments since 2016, Paralympians have only received similar incentives since the Tokyo Games in 2021. And while the Australian Olympic Committee fully funds these payments to Olympic medallists, Paralympics Australia, which is a charity, lacks the funds to cover similar payments to our Paralympians, with the federal government picking up the cost. For athletes like Ayers, who is a trained nurse, receiving financial support from their National Sporting Organisation made the world of difference. "For me to receive the financial support that I did from Rowing Australia, who do fund the Para athletes equally within the program, I was able to work less and focus more on training and work towards that goal," Ayers said. Ayers said the high cost of additional equipment, like racing wheelchairs and prosthetics, could also make competing more expensive for disabled athletes. This specialist equipment can cost upwards of $30,000. "That's where that financial gap can be quite vital and important for people with disabilities so they can stay in the sport, represent their country and go to the Paralympic Games," Ayres said. Some athletes in the survey said if not for receiving some level of sponsorship they would have lost money, while others spoke of discrepancies in sponsorship opportunities, and many spoke about the lack of events to win prize money in. "Even at local races, the 'elite' able-bodied athletes will often get prize money, whereas Para-athletes don't," one respondent said. "In my sport, the males [both able and para] seem to get a lot more sponsorships than the females, even when we outperform them." Di Toro acknowledged that she was one of the lucky ones, winning prize money when she was a wheelchair tennis player, but knew of many athletes who were having to choose between paying their rent or eating. "Funding is tricky, I often feel like there's a real disconnect between what we financially need to do to compete and what is actually being provided," she said. "We prop these athletes up on these high pedestals, and we're so proud of them, and yet I don't think most Australians know what athletes are doing and how they're trying to actually make ends meet." In a statement, the Australian Sports Commission says it recognises that "the cost of specialised equipment, travel, training and everyday living expenses" can be a barrier for Para athletes. It also said investment by the federal government, through the Para Uplift program, has been extended for another two years, with the aim to "identify the critical issues affecting [athletes'] ability to enter, progress and succeed in high-performance sport". Media and 'Cripspiration' While media coverage of the Paralympics has vastly improved since the London 2012 Games, broader coverage of Para and disabled sport is still limited. In the survey, Ayers expressed that women get "hardly any free-to-air time or prime time coverage … and para-athletes [get] hardly any coverage, less than women." Another respondent wrote that a lack of media coverage impacted sponsorship opportunities, saying: "It's extremely difficult to financially support yourself as an athlete across Olympic and Paralympic sports unless you are the greatest of all time or have an incredible story to sell." Di Torro said it seemed like there was only room for one Para athlete at a time when it came to media focus and coverage. "It's like you've either got the one fast person with one leg, or you've got the one great athlete who pushes a wheelchair really, really fast," she said. There's also concern about the way Para athlete stories are being told. Para triathlete Dr Hannah MacDougall, who has also won Paralympic medals for swimming, researched issues around Para athlete sponsorship and media representation in her university Honours thesis. MacDougall said non-disabled athletes were often associated with strength and power, whereas disabled athletes were seen as inspirational for overcoming their impairment. The disability community has termed this narrative "cripspiration" and regards it as patronising. "Media and imagery are so powerful; it's [2026], and we still get 'cripspiration'," MacDougall said. "I have all of these strengths that often get overlooked because people see the two wheels [of the wheelchair] and they straight away go to pity." Di Toro felt too many stories could be "clickbait", with the narrative focused on how the person acquired their disability, instead of placing their role as a high-performance athlete first. "We [need to] start looking at the actual performances of people and start praising those things, rather than this kind of trauma-based stuff when they were at the worst point of their life," Di Toro said. For Ayers, it was about ensuring marginalised communities like disabled people could see themselves represented. "When there's a person with a disability, male or female or queer, there's the pride and the worthiness that you feel, that we are worthy and that we are valued in society," Ayers said. "It is why I think it's so important to be getting us out there in mainstream media so other members of the public can see that and see that there are people with disabilities doing what they love and achieving greatness as well." Looking ahead ABC's Elite Athletes in Australian Women's Sport survey is not alone in shedding light on the issues that disabled women athletes have experienced. Griffith University's initial research into the experiences of disabled women, girls, and non-binary people in sport and physical activity has also revealed issues around funding, health and social attitudes. Many respondents in the Griffith University research described instances of sexism and devaluing based on their gender. One such respondent spoke about bullying and verbal abuse they had experienced, and like Ayers, were told they were not good enough. "All of these factors are abuse and no swimmer in Australian culture should ever need to go through this," the respondent said. What all this research does is pull back the covers on what is often not spoken about in sport, particularly for disabled girls and women. Ultimately, Di Toro, Ayers, and MacDougall want to see disabled women and girls able to thrive in elite sport. "You need women in leadership roles who have an impairment, who have a disability, have that seat at the table," MacDougall said. For Ayers, who was now looking to compete at the Los Angeles Games in a new sport, it was fundamentally about feeling safe and empowered to fully be yourself in sport. She wanted people to realise the impact discrimination could have, so we stop it from happening. "The most frustrating aspect of dealing with discrimination in sport is there's very little change," she said. "We should be able to just rock up as human beings that love a sport and want to wear the green and gold and win a gold medal for Australia. That's what it should come down to." This story is part of the ABC Elite Athletes in Australian Women's Sport Survey.