In 2012 Curtis McGrath was serving with the Royal Australian Engineer Corps in Afghanistan when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED). The blast resulted in him having his left leg amputated below the knee and his right leg above the knee. He also shattered bones in his wrist, had burns to his fingers, suffered a perforated ear drum and a laceration on the back of his right leg. As he was being carried away on a stretcher, only 20 minutes after the explosion, he said to his colleagues, “you guys will see me in the Paralympics”.

Born in New Zealand, McGrath tried several sports as he began his quest to compete at the Paralympic Games. He competed in wheelchair basketball, swimming and archery at the 2013 Marine Trial Games in United States of America, but when he became aware paracanoe was going to make its Paralympic debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 he chose to pursue the sport as he had done whitewater kayaking at high school.

McGrath, who cites New Zealander rugby union player Richie McCaw as his sporting hero, became Australia’s first paracanoe world champion when he was victorious in the V1M 200m TA in 2014 in Moscow, Russian Federation. He went on to win the VL2M 200m at the 2015 World Championships before doing the double of VL2M 200m and KL2M 200m the following year. Austria’s Markus Swoboda (6) is the only male to win more paracanoe world titles than McGrath (4).