Samantha Schmidt (Wakawaka and Gubbi Gubbi)

Event

• F38 Discus Throw

Achievements

• Australian and Oceania Record Holder (F38 Discus Throw - 33.66m)
• Sixth Place - Tokyo Paralympics (2021)
• 2018 All Schools Champion

Biography

Samantha’s two Australian All-Schools national titles in both discus and javelin in 2018 put her on the path to her first ever Paralympic Games.

But the intervention of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the wait to pull on the green-and-gold track suit was extended by another 12 months.

Now Samantha is in Tokyo as the new Oceania record holder after she lifted her PB to 33.66m at the Sydney Track Classic in March this year to sail under the Games qualifying mark.

“When I was younger my dream was to go to the Olympics, but I had a lot of people saying, ‘You won’t make it’ or ‘You won’t be able to go because of your disability’,” Samantha said.

“What they call a disability, I call it a challenge – because it is a challenge – it’s not something that everyone out there can go through.”

Samantha has been a scholarship holder at the QAS (Queensland Academy of Sport) in her bid to make her first Paralympics team.

Samantha is a proud Indigenous woman from the Wakawaka and Gubbi Gubbi people from the South-Eastern Queensland region.