Angela Ballard

Angie Ballard

2016 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Ballard
Personal information
Full name	Angela Ballard
Nickname(s)	Angie
Nationality	Australia
Born	6 June 1982 Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Height	1.71 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	35 kg (5 st 7 lb) – 40 kg (6 st 4 lb)
Sport
Sport	Paralympic athletics
College team	The University of Sydney
Club	NSWIS
Medal record Track and field (athletics) Paralympic Games 2008 Beijing 4x100 m – T53/54 2012 London 200 m – T53 2012 London 400 m – T53 2016 Rio 4×400 metre relay - T53/54 2004 Athens 100 m – T53 2012 London 100 m – T53 2016 Rio 100 m – T53 2016 Rio 400 m – T53 IPC Athletics World Championships 1998 Birmingham 4x100 m Relay 1998 Birmingham 4x400 m Relay 2002 Lille 100 m 2015 Doha 200 m T53 2015 Doha 400 m T53 2013 Lyon 100 m T53 2013 Lyon 200 m T53 2013 Lyon 800 m T53 2013 Lyon 400 m T53 2015 Doha 800m T53 Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow 1500 m T54

Angela "Angie" Ballard (born 6 June 1982) is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.

She began competing in wheelchair racing in 1994, and first represented Australia in 1998. Over four Paralympic Games from 2000 to 2012, she has won three silver and two bronze medals. Her current coach is Louise Sauvage and her training partner is Madison de Rozario.

Ballard held athletics scholarships at the Australian Institute of Sport from 1999 to 2001, and The University of Sydney (while studying first commerce and then psychology), and also represents the New South Wales Institute of Sport. She has been appointed by a number of organisations as a disability or sports ambassador, and currently sits on the board of Wheelchair Sports NSW.

She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. It was her fifth Games.

At seven I was really angry and isolated. It was frightening. I wish I'd had someone to tell me it would get better, that life's not about the walking but about living your life.

Ballard was born on 6 June 1982 in Canberra. At the age of seven, she became a (T10) paraplegic after a car accident, when her mother lost control of the car through fatigue. Following the accident, her initial hospitalisation and rehabilitation was in Canberra for three months, among elderly amputees. Her rehabilitation was then moved to the Royal North Shore Hospital, where she met Christie Dawes (née Skelton), who she would later race with in the Australian 4x100 m relay team at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. Because her brother had spina bifida, and was already "in the [regular] system", her parents insisted that Angie continue at a regular school, rather than one specifically for disabled students. She attended Lyneham Primary School and Lyneham High School in Canberra. Her physical education teacher was one of the people who first encouraged her to participate in wheelchair sports. After her rehabilitation she tried swimming and wheelchair basketball. Her first experiences of racing at the age of 12 resulted in blisters and a sore neck, but wheelchair athletics soon became her passion. At age 14, after treatment for scoliosis, Ballard was unable to participate in sport for a year.