 |
Samuel RizzoEVENTS: Men's T54 800m, 1500m AGE: 22 (DOB 3 Aug 2000) COACH: Richard Colman STATE: VIC AUSTRALIAN TEAM DEBUT: 2017 World Junior Para Athletics Championships PERSONAL BEST: 800m 1:33.06 (2023), 1500m 2:59.16 (2023) |
 |
BIOGRAPHYSam Rizzo’s coach Richard Coleman has had an enormous impact on his journey in the sport. Sam met Richard when he was aged eight and later that year watched him win gold at the 2008 Paralympics. In 2012 Richard’s mother contact Sam and suggested he might like to give wheelchair racing a go. “I loved it from the first time I got in a race chair on the track,” he recalled. He made his international championships debut in 2017 at the World Para Junior Championships in Switzerland where he claimed bronze medals in each of the T54 wheelchair 100m, 800m and 1500m events. Sam had the honour of being the team flagbearer. As a teenager he made his senior international debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. Competing in the T54 1500m, alongside a legendary athlete Kurt Fearnley, Sam progressed through the heats and into the final where he placed sixth clocking 3:14.16. Over the next five years Sam competed regularly, travelling to International competitions in Dubai and Switzerland, but this year makes his return to the National team with his selection for the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris in July. Sam’s hobbies outside of athletics include film and bass guitar. He has also competed in wheelchair basketball. His heros are Kurt Fearnley, Marcel Hug and especially his coach Richard Coleman “He is so committed to the sport. He has achieved a lot within the sport. He has been my coach and mentor since the beginning. He gives me tips and strategies to help, but it means more because he has been through it all.” @ 26 June 2023 david.tarbotton@athletics.org.au
|