Heath Francis

Born and raised in Booral, near Newcastle, Heath had his right arm amputated at the age of seven after his arm was caught in a meat mincer on the family farm.

As a child he loved playing handball with his brother. Originally right-handed, Heath recalls an incident the day he was discharged from hospital where he beat his brother left-handed. It was at this point that he realised that he was not going to let his accident hold him back.

Heath first represented Australia at the 1998 World Championships in Birmingham. Two years later, he was competing at his first Paralympic Games in Sydney where he exceeded all expectations to win gold in the 400m. Added to his medal collection on debut were two relay gold medals and a silver medal for the 200m.

Heath has gone on to be one of Australia�s most consistent and successful athletes. In Athens, Heath’s personal medal tally was 3 silver and 2 bronze medals and his recent accolade was to become the first athlete to win the T46 100m/200m/400m treble at last year’s World Championships; a truly impressive feat!

Heath has been an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder since 2003 and credits his current coach, Iryna Dvoskina for “making me the best athlete possible”. His major sporting goal is to “run the perfect race in Beijing”; we look forward to watching that.