Jessica Gallagher
Encyclopedia
Jessica Gallagher is a Paralympic alpine skier
from Geelong, Victoria
. She was Australia's second female winter Paralympian, and the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics.
She is legally blind, and represents Australia internationally in two sports: Skiing and athletics. In skiing, she has won a bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics
. In athletics, she has set national records in discus, long jump and shot put. She has also represented the state of Victoria as a junior in netball and basketball.
. In 2009, she graduated from RMIT University
with a Master of Osteopathy
. When not competing, she is a registered osteopath.
Her heroes are her mother and her athletics coaches, Mike Edwards, John Boas and Steve Gaffney. At the time of the 2010 Winter Paralympics, she was dating the American Paralympic sitting ski slalomer Gerald Hayden. She is an Australian Paralympic Committee Ambassador and Vision Australia
Ambassador for Recreation. She spoke at the 2010 Disability Rights and Advocacy Service Annual General Meeting.
She is blind in her left eye and has partial sight in her right eye, as a result of cone dystrophy
, a rare genetic disease. She started to lose her eyesight when she was a teenager,having found out the news after some tests with the results being told to her while she was competing at the U17 national netball championships.
Gallagher was supposed to compete in the 2008 Summer Paralympics
in long jumping, but she failed her classification test because the classifiers said the eyesight in her right eye was too good. In November 2009, her classification was revisited as a result of the deterioration of her vision and she was deemed eligible to compete. One of her goals is to become the first Australian Paralympic athlete to earn medals at both the Summer and Winter Paralympics.
and basketball
with able bodied athletes, having first participated in both sports before she started to lose her vision. In netball, she is a goal shooter and plays for South Barwon and Leopold. In basketball, she competes for the Geelong Cats. As a junior, she represented Victoria in both sports and was an emergency team member for Australia's national U16 netball team. At that time, her goal was to become a professional netball or basketball player.
Gallagher is also a snowboarder, a sport she took up soon after learning about her vision problems while on a working holiday in Denver, Colorado
. This was two years before she took up skiing, and the sport of snowboarding is one she would like to see as an event at the Winter Paralympics.
, who also coached Michael Milton
and is the current head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport's Winter Paralympic program. Her Australian training base is at the Victorian Institute of Sport
's training centre located near the Olympic Park Stadium
. Training for Gallagher involves completing ten to twelve sessions six days a week, with each session lasting between two and three hours.
Gallagher first represented Australia in 2009 and the New Zealand Winter Games, where she took home a gold medal. In January 2010, she competed at her first IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup event in Austria and won a medal. On 25 November 2009, her inclusion on the Australian Winter Paralympic Team was announced. Prior to the start of the 2010 Games, she had competed in nine World Cup events, and finished third overall during the 2009/2010 IPC World Cup season in slalom event in her inaugural competition season. On her 24th birthday, she won a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games
in the Women's Slalom visually impaired event, after having spent only 150 total days skiing. In her first and second time down the hill, she finished third both times, with a time of 2:04.35 in one of her runs. She also competed in the Women's Giant Slalom visually impaired event in the 2008 Games.
Australia's National Sports Museum put several items related to her on display following her bronze medal win. In July 2011, she and Bickerton ran a ski camp for people who are blind or have low vision.
and Victorian Institute of Sport
. She competed at the 2008 Australian Athletics Championships where she competed in the women ambulant open division, and finished first in the long jump event and third in the shot put and discus throw. She was supposed to compete in the 2008 Summer Paralympics
in long jump, but she failed her classification test despite Australian medical classifiers declaring her legally blind. The degree of visibility classification between her competing and not competing was .01. She competed at the 2009 Australian Athletics Championships in the same division and finished fourth in the long jump and fifth in the discus throw. Gallagher also competed at the 2010 Australian National Athletics Championships held in Perth, Western Australia
. In January 2011, she competed at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she finished third in the javelin throw event, with a throw of 33.75 metres (110.7 ft). Her appearance at the championships marked her return to the sport after having taken a break to compete in skiing. In April 2011, she competed in the Australian Athletics Championships where she finished first in the long jump and second in the javelin throw.
Alpine skiing at the Winter Paralympics
Paralympic alpine skiing has been competed at the Winter Paralympic Games since they were first held in 1976. Events include men's and women's downhill, Super G, giant slalom, slalom, and combined....
from Geelong, Victoria
Geelong, Victoria
Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, south-west of the state capital; Melbourne. It is the second most populated city in Victoria and the fifth most populated non-capital city in Australia...
. She was Australia's second female winter Paralympian, and the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics.
She is legally blind, and represents Australia internationally in two sports: Skiing and athletics. In skiing, she has won a bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics
2010 Winter Paralympics
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially the X Paralympic Winter Games, or the 10th Winter Paralympics, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The Opening Ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler...
. In athletics, she has set national records in discus, long jump and shot put. She has also represented the state of Victoria as a junior in netball and basketball.
Personal
Gallagher was born on 14 March 1986 and is from Geelong, VictoriaGeelong, Victoria
Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, south-west of the state capital; Melbourne. It is the second most populated city in Victoria and the fifth most populated non-capital city in Australia...
. In 2009, she graduated from RMIT University
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
with a Master of Osteopathy
Osteopathy
Osteopathy and osteopathic medicine are often used interchangeably for the philosophy and system of alternative medical practice first proposed by A. T. Still MD, DO in 1874....
. When not competing, she is a registered osteopath.
Her heroes are her mother and her athletics coaches, Mike Edwards, John Boas and Steve Gaffney. At the time of the 2010 Winter Paralympics, she was dating the American Paralympic sitting ski slalomer Gerald Hayden. She is an Australian Paralympic Committee Ambassador and Vision Australia
Vision Australia
Vision Australia is a not-for-profit organisation and Australia's largest provider of services for people with blindness and low vision.-Vision and Mission:...
Ambassador for Recreation. She spoke at the 2010 Disability Rights and Advocacy Service Annual General Meeting.
She is blind in her left eye and has partial sight in her right eye, as a result of cone dystrophy
Cone dystrophy
A cone dystrophy is an inherited ocular disorder characterized by the loss of cone cells, the photoreceptors responsible for both central and color vision....
, a rare genetic disease. She started to lose her eyesight when she was a teenager,having found out the news after some tests with the results being told to her while she was competing at the U17 national netball championships.
Gallagher was supposed to compete in the 2008 Summer Paralympics
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....
in long jumping, but she failed her classification test because the classifiers said the eyesight in her right eye was too good. In November 2009, her classification was revisited as a result of the deterioration of her vision and she was deemed eligible to compete. One of her goals is to become the first Australian Paralympic athlete to earn medals at both the Summer and Winter Paralympics.
Netball, basketball and snowboarding
She plays netballNetball
Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
with able bodied athletes, having first participated in both sports before she started to lose her vision. In netball, she is a goal shooter and plays for South Barwon and Leopold. In basketball, she competes for the Geelong Cats. As a junior, she represented Victoria in both sports and was an emergency team member for Australia's national U16 netball team. At that time, her goal was to become a professional netball or basketball player.
Gallagher is also a snowboarder, a sport she took up soon after learning about her vision problems while on a working holiday in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. This was two years before she took up skiing, and the sport of snowboarding is one she would like to see as an event at the Winter Paralympics.
Competitive skiing
Gallagher was the first Australian woman to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics, and Australia's second female winter Paralympian. She took up skiing in December 2008 as a result of classification issues she faced with athletics. She was given the opportunity to compete at the highest levels in skiing after being identified during a talent search and because of her snowboarding experience. As she is blind, she competes with a guide. Her guide skiing partner is Eric Bickerton. She is coached by Steve GrahamSteve Graham
Steve Graham is an Australian Paralympic winter sport coach. He was head coach of Australia's Winter Paralympic team for the 1994 Winter Paralympics, 2006 Winter Paralympics and the 2010 Winter Paralympics. , Graham is the current head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport's Winter Paralympic...
, who also coached Michael Milton
Michael Milton
Michael John Milton, OAM is an Australian Winter Paralympic skier and cyclist. He lost a leg to bone cancer when he was nine years old...
and is the current head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport's Winter Paralympic program. Her Australian training base is at the Victorian Institute of Sport
Victorian Institute of Sport
The Victorian Institute of Sport is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It runs a number of programs for sports training. The headquarters are located in Melbourne. The inaugural executive director of the institute was Frank Pyke....
's training centre located near the Olympic Park Stadium
Olympic Park Stadium
Olympic Park Stadium was a multi-purpose outdoor stadium located on Olympic Boulevard in inner Melbourne. The stadium was built as an athletics training venue for the 1956 Olympics, a short distance from the MCG, which served as the Olympic Stadium...
. Training for Gallagher involves completing ten to twelve sessions six days a week, with each session lasting between two and three hours.
Gallagher first represented Australia in 2009 and the New Zealand Winter Games, where she took home a gold medal. In January 2010, she competed at her first IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup event in Austria and won a medal. On 25 November 2009, her inclusion on the Australian Winter Paralympic Team was announced. Prior to the start of the 2010 Games, she had competed in nine World Cup events, and finished third overall during the 2009/2010 IPC World Cup season in slalom event in her inaugural competition season. On her 24th birthday, she won a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games
2010 Winter Paralympics
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially the X Paralympic Winter Games, or the 10th Winter Paralympics, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The Opening Ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler...
in the Women's Slalom visually impaired event, after having spent only 150 total days skiing. In her first and second time down the hill, she finished third both times, with a time of 2:04.35 in one of her runs. She also competed in the Women's Giant Slalom visually impaired event in the 2008 Games.
Australia's National Sports Museum put several items related to her on display following her bronze medal win. In July 2011, she and Bickerton ran a ski camp for people who are blind or have low vision.
Competitive athletics
Gallagher is an athletics competitor, competing in long jump, discus, shot putting and sprinting, with her training for the sport being very similar to her training for skiing. She became involved in athletics as part of an Australian Institute of Sport talent search, after she contacted the Institute of Sport and asked for the assessment so she could re-enter the world of competitive world of sport after her vision made it difficult for her to participate in basketball and netball. At the skills assessment, the classifiers had her try shot put, and dressed in casual athletic attire, she managed a throw that met the Paralympic qualifying distance. After a year of training, she would increase this initial distance by 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) to have a throw of 12 metres (39.4 ft). Her personal best in the F13 javelin throw event is 29.79 metres (97.7 ft), which she accomplished in 2010, and in the F13 long jump her personal best is 4.97 metres (16.3 ft). She holds several records in the F13 classification, including Australian and Oceanian records in the long jump and shot put, and an Australian record in discus. In athletics, Mike Edwards and John Boas have been some of her coaches. She obtained athletics scholarships with the Australian Institute of SportAustralian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia with world class facilities and support services. The Institute's headquarters is situated in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 66.0 hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce, but some of the...
and Victorian Institute of Sport
Victorian Institute of Sport
The Victorian Institute of Sport is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It runs a number of programs for sports training. The headquarters are located in Melbourne. The inaugural executive director of the institute was Frank Pyke....
. She competed at the 2008 Australian Athletics Championships where she competed in the women ambulant open division, and finished first in the long jump event and third in the shot put and discus throw. She was supposed to compete in the 2008 Summer Paralympics
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games, the thirteenth Paralympics, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to September 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao....
in long jump, but she failed her classification test despite Australian medical classifiers declaring her legally blind. The degree of visibility classification between her competing and not competing was .01. She competed at the 2009 Australian Athletics Championships in the same division and finished fourth in the long jump and fifth in the discus throw. Gallagher also competed at the 2010 Australian National Athletics Championships held in Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. In January 2011, she competed at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she finished third in the javelin throw event, with a throw of 33.75 metres (110.7 ft). Her appearance at the championships marked her return to the sport after having taken a break to compete in skiing. In April 2011, she competed in the Australian Athletics Championships where she finished first in the long jump and second in the javelin throw.