Athletes with a disability 

Athletics Australia, in consultation with its member associations, is committed to enhancing the opportunities for all Australians to be involved in the sport of athletics, including athletes with a disability (AWDs). It does this by providing access to competition and associated support structures through its interclub, regional, state and national competition pathways.

To provide a High Performance pathway for AWDs, Athletics Australia has conducted National Championships for AWDs since 1992. For the open age AWD events these Championships have been included in the Open ‘able-bodied’ National Championships since 2001. Since 2006 Athletics Australia also conducted Underage AWD National Championships.

Athletics Australia has formal partnerships with the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) and AUSRAPID (Australian Sport and Recreation Association for Persons with Integration Difficulties Inc) to prepare athletics teams for key events that include the INAS Global Games, the IPC World Athletics Championships and the Paralympic Games.

The key programs that drive this process are:

• the Athletics Australia Paralympic Preparation Program (AA-PPP), and
• the Athletics Australia Global Games Preparation Program (AA-GGPP)

The program continues to grow at a rapid rate and experience great success internationally. This is largely due to the ongoing support of Australia's State Institute of Sport and State Academy of Sport (SIS/SAS) programs. Australia's best Paralympic athletes are invited to be part of the Athletics Australia Paralympic Preparation Program (PPP), where international standard athletes are provided high performance service delivery through the SIS/SAS network to assist there preparation for major Championships.