Wheely competitive

Alex de Vos
Highton’s Jemima Moore is beaming – and it’s not because she’s about to embark on her first European adventure in a couple of weeks.
The bubbly 16-year-old has just blitzed her learner’s test and is itching to get behind the wheel.
“The test was so easy,” Jemima says, “although I’m still a little bit nervous about driving.”
But for someone who’s already travelled to China and through most of Australia to compete against athletes well beyond her years, driving should be a breeze for the young Paralympian.
“Hopefully,” she smiles.
With her father and younger sister looking on, Jemima jumps out of her daily wheelchair and into her new maroon racer.
“You want me in this for the photo, don’t you?” she asks while effortlessly gliding onto the athletics track.
“It’s quite easy to use, just like my other wheelchair. But this one is designed for racing – it’s a bit longer.”
Jemima looks even more content on the track despite admitting she had no desire to enter the world of athletics just four years ago.
She explains that Kay Colman, the mother of Geelong paralympian Richard Colman, had previously tried in vain to encourage her into “a whole range of sports” for the disabled.
“I was never really into any of it,” Jemima remembers.
“Then six years later she bumped into us again and said I should come down to the track and see Richard train and just have a look.
“So I did. Then I got a chair from Wheelchair Sports and gave it a go and I just loved it.
“Now, I couldn’t imagine not doing it.
“I think the people you meet and being able to travel is what I love the most about it – I would have never imagined me doing this much travelling and meeting the people I do.
In 2008 Jemima left behind the comfortable surroundings of Geelong’s Landy Field to compete on the biggest stage of her life at the Beijing Paralympic Games.
She represented Australia in the women’s 4×100-metre relay, winning a silver medal after the speedy Chinese pipped her team at the post.
“They came in at 57.61 seconds and we finished at 1.01 – they’re just so quick,” Jemima reflects.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot of time but it’s huge.
“The whole experience was fantastic.”
Still riding high on Olympic memories, Jemima will jet to Switzerland next month to compete in a Junior World Paralympic Championships.
“It’s my first time to Europe, so I’m very excited,” she squeals.
“It’s a long way away – I had a look at the flight plans and I have to catch, like, four different planes.”
Usually confident on the track, Jemima says she is feeling apprehensive and nervous about her European competition.
“Richard’s been over there and had a look at the competition and apparently they’re quite good,” she says.
“I’ve been doing hills as part of my training, so I’m feeling pretty good.”
A wealth of information on athletics and Olympics, the year, 11 St Ignatius College student struggles to explain the disability that robbed her of the use of her legs
“It doesn’t actually have a name. Paraplegia, I guess,” she says.
“They never actually found a cause, so it’s just a mystery disease. When I was six I fell over one day and that was pretty much it.
“It does make it annoying because you need that (a diagnosis) to kind of deal with what’s going on but you kind of just get on with your life.”
As much as she loves competing, Jemima would like to go to university and study primary school teaching after she completes high school next year.
“I think that would be nice,” she says.
“But I still need to work out what I’m doing because the next Paralympic Games are in 2012 and that’s the one I’m aiming for.”