Brisbane Catholic Education alumni are taking their inspirational stories to Paris this week as they contest the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Lakeisha “Lucky” Patterson is ready for her third Games, winning para-swimming gold medals at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo three years ago to the delight of her former school St Columban’s College, Caboolture.
Lucky will be joined in the pool by other former BCE students including:
- Ruby Storm – Siena Catholic College Buderim alumni competing in swimming – 100m butterfly S14
- Lewis Bishop – Clairvaux MacKillop College Upper Mount Gravatt alumni competing in 100m butterfly S9 category
- Eithen Leard – Sacred Heart Booval and St Peter Claver College alumni competing in men’s basketball team
- Poppy Wilson - Seton College Mount Gravatt East alumni competing in swimming - 100m FreestyleS10, 400m FreestyleS10, 100m Butterfly S1
- Jake Michel - Seton College Mount Gravatt East alumni competing in swimming - 100m BreaststrokeSB1
- Maddie McTernan - Aquinas College Ashmore alumni competing in swimming - 200m FreestyleS14, 100m BackstrokeSB1
- Keira Stephens - Exavier Catholic College Hervey Bay alumni competing in swimming - 100m BreaststrokeSB9, 200m Individual MedleySM10.
Ruby Storm, a 2022 senior at Siena Catholic College, Buderim, is chasing her first Paralympic Games gold medal after claiming silver and bronze at her debut in Tokyo in 2021.
And Lewis Bishop, who graduated last year from Clairvaux MacKillop College, Upper Mount Gravatt, will make his Paralympic debut in the 100m butterfly S9 category.
They follow 14 former BCE students who recently competed at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Lucky Patterson’s story is among the best-known of the 160 Australians who will compete at the Paralympic Games.
More than 4000 athletes from across the world are expected to compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports. The schedule of events can be found here.
Lucky claimed gold in the women’s 400m freestyle S9 in Tokyo by eight-hundredths of a second to claim Australia’s first gold medal of those Games and to continue her truly inspirational story.
Lucky was not breathing when she was born from a difficult delivery and suffered a stroke after birth. She required resuscitation and was later diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy left Hemiplegia.
Lucky began swimming at age five as way to help with muscle stiffness from her Cerebral Palsy and that move has brought enormous joy to Australia’s sporting landscape.
She has won three Paralympic gold medals, multiple world championships and Commonwealth Games titles.
Ruby Storm will contest her strongest event, the women’s 100m butterfly S14, on the opening day of competition this week.
Ruby starred at the Siena Catholic College swimming carnival in 2021 on her way to the Tokyo Paralympics, where she claimed a bronze medal in her pet event.
She told the Australian Paralympic website that her intellectual challenges meant that she understood things in a different way to some other people.
“I’m still learning to understand that more,” Ruby said.
“I feel like when I’m under pressure I don’t swim as great. I just focus on being happy and that’s when the really good swimming comes out.
“I just try to show everyone that I can do this and don’t underestimate me.”
Lewis Bishop’s path to Paris was shaped by two Paralympic legends who visited him while he was a nine-year-old recovering from the loss of a leg in a boating accident.
Brenden Hall and Scott Reardon sparked a thought in Lewis that he could continue the swimming career that had stalled after his accident.
“Being able to hold (Brenden’s) gold medal was incredible. I remember saying to my parents: ‘I’m going to get one of these’,” Lewis told media after the Paralympic selection trials.
Lewis had competed in the trials before the Tokyo Paralympics but it wasn’t until this year that he made the team.