General News
20 August, 2024
Aiming to be best in the world on wheels
Horsham's Jannik Blair lives to play the game he loves and at which he excels - and on August 16 the Paralympics silver medallist will fly to Paris to join the 2024 Australian Paralympics team.
Blair has gold and bronze medals from world wheelchair basketball championships and last weekend added another trophy when his team, the Darwin Salties, defeated the Roller Hawks in a thrilling National Wheelchair Basketball League final in Wollongong.
And already he is looking ahead to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.
"To be still playing basketball at 40 and playing in my sixth Olympics would be the icing on the cake," he told The Horsham Times this week.
Australian athletes will participate in the Paralympics Opening Ceremony on Wednesday August 28 at 4am AEST.
It will not be a traditional stadium event but will take place in the heart of Paris with the Champs-Elysées as the centrepiece.
Two days later Blair, 32, will take to the court for his first wheelchair basketball match of the 2024 Paralympics.
His opening group game with the Australian Rollers will be against the Netherlands on Friday August 30 at 5.30am AEST.
The second is on the same day at 8.45pm against Spain and the third on Sunday September 1 at 6.30pm against the USA.
The quarter-finals will start on Tuesday September 3, and Blair says he's hoping to be part of that action.
Jannik will be supported by a cheer squad of about 20 supporters, including his mum Hanne and her husband Kelvin Mills, his father Peter and partner Felicity, his two brothers, family friend Judy Carine and Blair's longtime friend Loucas Vettos of Horsham.
It will also be an opportunity for his family to catch up with other Paralympians and their families.
Blair suffered a broken back, wrist breaks and a collapsed lung in a devastating vehicle accident on the family farm at Kalkee in 2004.
He was in a coma for a week before attending the Austin Hospital’s Talbot Centre for rehabilitation.
He progressed quickly and cut about seven weeks off his expected rehabilitation stay.
Now without feeling from the waist down, Blair says he can "do everything but walk".
He was 12 at the time of the accident, and in Year 7 at St Brigid's College after completing primary school at Horsham Lutheran School.
Soon after returning home he was planning to participate in a triathlon, and in his new "track chair" he could cover 3km in 17 minutes.
By then he was also swimming, playing tenpin bowls and working out in the gym to improve his upper body strength.
He was determined to be as independent as possible.
His goal from the start was to be a Paralympian, and this event will be his fourth after London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
Once he was back at school his teachers said he had returned to his same old self: popular, good-humoured, studious and fun-loving.
He later took up a US college scholarship at the University of Missouri for wheelchair basketball players.
The US remains the sole country offering that course.
Later he spent time at Canberra’s Institute of Sport, and he is now based near Frankfurt in Germany, but spends a few months each year in Australia.
He has played professional basketball since 2017.
Mrs Mills said her son remained modest about his successes and sometimes she was the last to know about his awards.
“We don’t always hear about his successes,” she said.
Blair is a "one-pointer" player. The score is based on level of ability, and a team is allowed 14 points in total.
One point indicates a player ranked the least able.
"His role is to defend and block,” Mrs Mills said. “That suits his abilities.
"Some consider him one of the best one-pointer players in the world.”
Loucas Vettos said it was a privilege to be able to fly to Paris to again watch his friend compete in the Paralympics.
"A group of us were in Rio during the games there," he said.
"We were unable to go to Tokyo because of Covid but it warms your heart to know we can be in Paris to cheer on a friend."
