James Turner

Started: He got involved in athletics for the first time at age eight at Forster Tuncurry Little Athletics in New South Wales, Australia. He took up Para athletics in 2015. (Athlete, 27 Aug 2021; paralympic.org.au, 01 Jan 2016) Reason: He switched to Para athletics after the Australian national Para football seven-a-side team failed to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games. (illawarramercury.com.au, 23 Jun 2020; nswathletics.org.au, 01 Aug 2016) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (Athletics Australia Facebook page, 15 Jul 2023; athleticswest.com.au, 06 Mar 2024) Awards: He was named Male Para Athlete of the Year at the 2023 Australian Institute of Sport [AIS] Sport Performance Awards [ASPAs]. (athletics.com.au, 30 Nov 2023) He was named Para Sport Athlete of the Year at the 2021 Canberra Sport Awards in Australia. (cmtedd.act.gov.au, 02 Dec 2021) In 2019/20 he was named Senior Para Athlete of the Year by Athletics New South Wales in Australia. (nswathletics.org.au, 12 May 2020) In 2019 he was named Male Para Athlete of the Year by Athletics Australia. (Athletics Australia Facebook page, 10 Jun 2020) In 2016 and 2017 he was named Sports Person of the Year by the University of Wollongong in Australia. (illawarramercury.com.au, 27 Oct 2017) In January 2017 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia [OAM] in recognition of the gold medal he won at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (paralympic.org, 28 Jan 2017) In 2016 he was named Paralympic Rookie of the Year by the Australian Paralympic Committee [APC]. (paralympic.org, 09 Dec 2016) In 2013 he was named Player of the Year for the 'Pararoos' - Australia's Para seven-a-side national football team. (illawarramercury.com.au, 23 Jun 2020) Additional Info: RIO COMEDOWN He sought help from a sports psychologist following the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, where he had won gold and broken the world record in the T36 800m. He believes his issues stemmed from childhood, when he was never able to beat the other children at school, and as a result he had promised himself that one day he would be the best at something. "I won [in Rio de Janeiro], I broke the world record and everything was the same. I wasn't profoundly changed, I was still the same guy. I came to realise that nothing that I did would fix all my problems and that was a hard realisation for me. [Winning] was the easy part. [Before it] gave me hope that I would one day be 'truly happy', and now it was gone. The time between Rio and the 2017 World Championships [in London, England] was probably the hardest time in my life. I felt useless and unhappy, and how can someone who's the best in the world feel useless and unhappy? I lost all hope. I developed unhealthy and self-destructive habits. I almost didn't get through it. I now promise myself that I'll always have a new dream, and that it'll be one I have no right to achieve. That way, I'll always have a reason to keep going." (abc.net.au, 30 Aug 2021; paralympic.org, 03 May 2018; Instagram profile, 01 Sep 2019) FURTHER EDUCATION He has also studied at the University of Wollongong in Australia. (athletics.com.au, 01 Feb 2017)