BATT Ryley

Classification
3.5 (IWRF, 01 Feb 2020)

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (rio2016.com, 25 Feb 2016)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (rio2016.com, 25 Feb 2016)

Impairment Details
He was born without legs and underwent an operation to separate his fingers. He began using a wheelchair at age 12. (rio2016.com, 25 Feb 2016)

General
RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER
His father competed in Ironman tournaments and played squash, and he would encourage Ryley to try different sports when he was younger. "I remember as a kid, my dad would take me down to the beach. He'd throw me on his back, put me in the car and then, at the beach, he'd throw me onto the soft sand and make me crawl down to the surf. There would be all these families there watching him saying, 'Go on, get yourself down to the water', and I'd be chucking a tantrum, crawling along looking like a prawn cutlet. It might seem like he was cruel but he was always very competitive and he believed the best thing was to push me and treat me like every other little boy. It was a huge thing for me, being treated like an average kid. It really worked, at least when I was young. There were so many times when I was a kid that I forgot about my disability and a large reason for that was the people I had around me." (athletesvoice.com.au, 22 Aug 2019)

EARLY DAYS
He would use a skateboard to move around as a child. "Wheelchairs were my kryptonite. I hated them. I didn't want to be in one because I thought people would look at me funny and because it felt like admitting defeat. I wanted to play sport, but wouldn't do anything in a chair. My parents had first tried to get me in a wheelchair when I was eight. They took me down to Sydney to get one and I remember saying to them at the shop, 'You can put me in a wheelchair but there's no way I'm going to use it'. Instead, I used a skateboard to get around. The skateboard was sort of my barrier and gave me a feeling of being like every other young person." (athletesvoice.com.au, 22 Aug 2019)

CLASSIFICATION CHANGE
At the 2004 Paralympic Games his classification was changed from 2.5 to 3.5. "I got classified up so I lost all my court time and had to rebuild as a whole player and try and play to a new class, probably the hardest thing in my sport. A 3.5 classification is the most able on the court, so my job is to be the main ball carrier and the hitter and the main man out there." (paralympic.org.au, 20 Dec 2011; smh.com.au, 11 Dec 2011)