LITTLE Rosemary

Date of Birth: 27 Aug 1982

Age: 39

Gender: Female

Sport Class: F32

Place of birth: MACKAY, QLD

Birth Country:

Australia

Place of residence : SYDNEY, NSW

Residence Country:

Australia

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Athletics	Women's Shot Put - F32	5

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Olympic Stadium - Seated Shot Put	Women's Shot Put - F32 Final	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Rank	Event	Year	Location	Result
Paralympic Games
3	100m - T34	2012	London, GBR	19.95
4	400m - T34	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	1:01.91
4	800m - T34	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	2:04.10
4	Women's 200m T34	2012	London, GBR	35.08
5	100m - T34	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA	19.05
World Championships
2	Women's 200m T34	2013	Lyon, FRA	33.73
3	100m - T34	2013	Lyon, FRA	19.93
DNS	100m - T34	2015	Doha, QAT	DNS

Occupation:

Athlete, Student

Occupational Therapy - The University of Sydney, Australia

Languages spoken:

Hills District Athletics Club [Castle Hill, ACT, AUS]

Karyne Di Marco; Breanne Clement

Other sports:

She has represented Australia in handcycling at international level and competed in Para rowing at national level. (paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2016; rowingaustralia.com.au, 01 Jan 2015)

2012 for Australia (paralympic.org.au, 09 May 2012)

She took up Para athletics when she attended a Wheelchair Sports New South Wales 'Come and Try' day in 2003 and then began competing in wheelchair racing. She went on to compete in wheelchair racing at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games, before switching to shot put in 2018. (arafuragames.nt.gov.au, 29 Apr 2019; paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2016)

After she competed in wheelchair racing at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she switched to shot put when doctors diagnosed her with a rare spinal tumour and her wheelchair classification was changed. (nswathletics.org.au, 23 Jul 2021; arafuragames.nt.gov.au, 29 Apr 2019)

To compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (Instagram profile, 05 Jun 2021)

Winning gold in shot put at the 2019 Arafura Games in Darwin, NT, Australia. (arafuragames.nt.gov.au, 29 Apr 2019)

General Interest

Classification
T33, F32 (IPC, 17 Aug 2021)

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2016)

Impairment Details
At age 12 she contracted a form of the brain virus autoimmune encephalitis, which resulted in spontaneous quadriplegia and uncontrollable muscle contractures. She had to relearn all of her skills and has no memory of her life from age 12 to 18. (paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2016)

General
FROM WHEELCHAIR RACING TO SHOT PUT
After suffering from bouts of pneumonia that affected her performances at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar and the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, she was admitted to hospital, where doctors discovered a rare spinal tumour. "I spent a year in hospital and rehab and couldn't even feed myself for the first eight months. I was either going to die or be on a ventilator for the rest of my life. I knew there was something wrong before and during Rio. I had quite a bad start in the 100m and wasn't performing that well." After her time in hospital her classification code was changed and she decided to switch from competing in wheelchair racing to shot put. "I'm tall, 6ft 2in, so I'm good at a lot of sports. I'm also a firm believer in perseverance. My doctors say, if I wasn't so stubborn, I wouldn't be here. The doctors' predictions for most of my life haven't been very positive but I've surpassed all their expectations and mine." (arafuragames.nt.gov.au, 29 Apr 2019)

HIATUS
Following her failure to qualify for the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens and a bout of illness, she took a hiatus from the sport and did not return to it until the end of 2011. (paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2017)

FURTHER STUDIES
She has studied speech and audiology at Macquarie University in Sydney, NSW, Australia. (Facebook profile, 05 Jan 2017)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos