Your Name:
Austin Smeenk

Your Sport:
Para-Athletics (Sprints & Middle Distance).
Category T34 – All America’s record holder in 100m,200m, 400m, 800m & 1500m
2023 Championships Medalist; 100m Silver and 400m Bronze

Favourite Gym/Pre-Game/Competition Song:
Too hard to narrow down but some of the pre game playlist includes:

• Ocean Drive – Duke Dumont
• Bonzo Goes to Bitburg – Ramones
• Devil Inside – INXS
• All Time High – Jon Pardi
• Written In The Stars – Tinie Tempah

Favorite sport memory or achievement:
In July of 2023, at the Para-Athletics World Championship in Paris France, I won my first championship medial in the 400m, taking a bronze. Later in the competition I went on to win a silver medal in the 100m, beating the world record holder by one hundredth of a second!
I have been competing in the sport for over 10 years professionally and crossing the finish line in podium position for the first time was an absolute delight.

Who is someone who has positively impacted your sport career?
One of the people who have had a significant impact on my sporting career and must be mentioned is the head coach of our national athletics team: Carla Nicholls.
Carla took leadership of the para-athletics team after the 2016 Rio Paralympics and made an immediate and lasting impression.
Her attitude towards success was both top tier, and inspiring. She helped us to believe in ourselves and instilled in us that we could be the best in the world at what we do and promised to surround us with high performance resources while continuing to build a culture of excellence.
In the years to follow, her dedication has only grown. Carla is an elite leader and deserves enormous recognition.

What are your hobbies or passion outside of sport?
Summer – Scuba Diving, Power Boating, Sailing, Dirt-Biking, Mountain Biking, Camping/Cottaging.
Winter – Snowmobiling, Snowboarding, Indoor Swimming
Both seasons play along the theme of exploration and being in nature