If we ever needed a reminder about the power of Para sport and how it can transform lives, it arrived just minutes after Paralympian #195 Anna Grimaldi MZNM received the Para Athlete/Team of the Year award at the 62nd ISPS HANDA Halberg Awards.
Proudly clutching the award and speaking to the gathering media on the red carpet at Spark Arena, she was “overwhelmed” to follow in the footsteps of many New Zealand Paralympic legends of Para sport but most of all she was moved to talk about her incredible life journey.
“As a little girl I was super shy and I didn’t want anyone to know that I was disabled and that I had one hand,” recalls Anna. “It was not until I started being exposed to Para sport and disability that I got to see the beauty of it.
“Para sport was something that I used to say was a negative, which turned it into a positive. However, over time I have learned my disability has always been a blessing. It has given me my best characteristics of how I treat people and see the world. It is something I couldn’t be more grateful for.”
Becoming the seventh athlete to win the Para Athlete prize at the Halberg Awards and following in the wake of previous winners; Paralympian #158 Adam Hall MNZM, #164 Cameron Leslie MNZM, #166 Dame Sophie Pascoe DNZM, #174 Mary Fisher MNZM, #188 MNZM Corey Peters and #197 Liam Malone MNZM – Anna is proud to join the stellar cast list and was particularly thrilled to receive the award from the most decorated Paralympian in history, Dame Sophie Pascoe.
“To be presented by Sophie Pascoe was such a cool moment, I did my year twelve speech on Sophie, and she paved the way for the athlete I’ve become,” says Anna.
Anna took time out to thank her “amazing parents” and “beautiful sister” who flew out to Paris to watch her compete. She thanked her partner, Australian Paralympic distance runner Jaryd Clifford, and her former coach, Brent Ward, who guided her to back-to-back gold medals in the Women’s Long Jump T47 at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
She also paid tribute to the role her current coach, Mike Jacobs, has played in her transformation into a world-leading sprinter.
“Mikey has created such an environment which is collaborative and pushes me to my limits,” she explains.
Her journey in 2024 has been shared on many occasions but is worth re-telling. Last May she claimed a Long Jump T47 silver medal and 100m T47 bronze medal at the Para Athletics World Championships in Kobe, Japan before she starred at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games with an emotional journey to the top of the podium.
In the French capital she set an Oceania record en route to the bronze medal in the Women’s 100m T47 – her first sprint medal at a Paralympic Games. However, chasing a third successive Paralympic Games Women’s Long Jump T47 gold medal she was disappointed to finish fourth just 1cm shy of the podium. For many the disappointment would have crushed them but the next day she bounced back to strike a stunning gold medal in the Women’s 200m T47 – the first gold medal for the NZ Paralympic Team at Paris 2024.
The fact she had done so in an event where she had little previous international pedigree was a remarkable show of ability and resilience.
Reflecting on her gold medal Anna says: “It is crazy. You only get to live it once, but you see it multiple times. It was a surreal moment. There was 80,000 people in the crowd, it was deafening but it couldn’t have been more silent in my lane.
“During the race I thought they (the opposition) are going to slingshot off the bend and come past me. As I came off the bend, I took a look up at the large screen (in the stadium) I was ahead but still had doubts in my mind. It was nice motivation to keep working for the gold.”
Back competing again, she plans to compete in the 100m at the International Track Meet in Christchurch on Saturday before targeting the New Zealand Track & Field Championships next month in her home city of Dunedin.
Later this year the Para Athletics World Championships in New Delhi is Anna’s next big international goal but does the 28-year-old South Islander believe she is more sprinter than jumper?
“I’m taking a break from long jump at the moment letting my body recover, wary that I don’t want to rush the decision around long jump and sprinter,” explains Anna who plans to “probably revisit” long jump in the future. “Obviously long jump didn’t go as well as I would have wanted to at the (Paris 2024) Games but that was just one day and I want to make any decision based on a lot of factors, not just emotion. At the moment, sprinting is the focus which is nice because not often ten years into your professional career do you get to start your career over again and that’s what it feels like.”
Yet whatever the future holds, Anna reflects on her journey through Para sport with joy.
“I’m really proud of who I am and what I stand for, I just wish little Anna could have found the courage sooner to be myself,” she adds. “But with all the media attention we have been getting and with the Paralympic Movement continuing to grow my hope is the little Anna’s of today will see themselves reflected in me and all the other Paralympians to feel seen and have the courage to shine.”
Image: Getty Images
