Geelong-born athlete Jessica Gallagher has done her hometown proud becoming the first Paralympian to win a medal at both the winter and summer Paralympics.
Gallagher won bronze in cycling in the one-kilometre time trial last weekend, riding tandem with pilot Maddie Janssen.
The 30-year-old celebrated the win on social media.
“(I’m) still finding it hard to believe I have just become the first Australian athlete to medal at a summer and winter Paralympics or Olympics,” she wrote on her Instagram account.
“I am so incredibly proud to have fulfilled this dream, to have overcome the unique challenges I’ve faced in transitioning between alpine skiing, track cycling and athletics.”
The medal capped off the historic achievement for the cyclist after she won bronze in the visually impaired giant slalom skiing in Vancouver two years earlier.
Gallagher competed in the long jump and javelin at the London 2012 Games before switching back to skiing for a giant slalom bronze in Sochi in 2014.
She switched again to cycling when long jump was dropped from Rio’s program.
Gallagher also competed in the 3km individual pursuit at Rio, placing ninth in qualification.
With the Rio Paralympics finishing Sunday, Highton’s Richard Colman and Grovedale’s Jemima Moore were still a chance for a medal on Friday.
Moore will compete in the T54 800m on Saturday evening while Colman was scheduled to race early Friday morning in the T53 800m (Australian Eastern Standard Time).
Moore finished 11th in round one of the T54 400m and 100m wheelchair sprint, while Colman placed 12th in round one of the T53 wheelchair 400m.
Ocean Grove’s Sam McIntosh came excruciatingly close to a medal finishing fourth in the T52 100 metre wheelchair sprint in 18.13 seconds.
The 26-year-old finished just behind Americans Gianfranco Lannotta and Raymond Martin, and Mexican Salvador Hernandez Mondragon in the sprint final.
