Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just a few weeks ago I stood here and proudly spoke about the support for our Olympians and how my electorate of Forde and our city of Logan have produced several stars—gold medal winners, in fact. Now it's our Paralympians who deserve the respect and plaudits of this House. I reiterate something that I said in this House before: I take immense pride in being a member of the Parliamentary Friends of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement and I'm pleased to co-chair that with my good friend the member for Moreton. We're just as proud to see the Paralympians from the local region don the green and gold.

Sadly, another Olympics and Paralympics have now gone by. We look forward to Los Angeles up next, and then it will be our turn, in Brisbane, to showcase what we have to offer in the wonderful sunshine state. But I want to focus on the here and now and the three incredible women presenting the Logan region at the Paris Paralympics: Logan Village mum of two AJ Jennings, Meadowbrook's Natalie Smith and Logan-born Samantha Schmidt have all done our region proud. AJ, along with her mixed team recurve open para-archery partner, Taymon Kenton-Smith, quickly became crowd favourites. Their campaign came to a dramatic close as they faced off against the Indians in the elimination stages. In a tense and nailbiting shoot-off, it came down to the final two arrows, with the Indian pair holding their nerve and delivering the decisive shots to secure victory. No matter the outcome, the Logan Village Paralympian should absolutely hold their head high on their tremendous achievement. Though disappointed by the campaign's end, Jennings expressed a sense of anticipation for future challenges. Jennings told the media:

It's a shame it's finished because I was enjoying it so much, but it just makes us hungrier for the next one.

I look forward to cheering her on in LA in 2028.

As well as Ms Jennings, para-shooter Natalie Smith shone. She equalled her best Paralympic result in the R8 50-metre rifle 3 position SH1, making the final and placing eighth overall in a fiercely competitive field. The rewarding result capped off Smith's 2024 Paris campaign, after placing 12th in the R2 women's 10-metre air rifle standing SH1. Logan thrower Samantha Schmidt, who holds the Australian Paralympic records in discus, shot put and javelin in the F38 class, finished seventh in the women's discus.

I want to thank our Olympians and also incredibly proudly our Paralympians over the past couple of weeks for their incredible representation of our nation on the global stage. We should all be very proud of their achievements.