Eithen Leard, a rising star of Australian Wheelchair Basketball

“Be sad. It sucks.”

That’s the advice Eithen Leard says he would give his younger self as a child born with a disability.

“It’s not ideal, but it’s up to you how you want to adapt your life to be as good as possible.”

It’s a tough love approach he’s learnt from playing with men twice his age in wheelchair basketball.

“I’m a professional athlete. I have to get up. I have to go to the gym. I have to train. Because I have a disability doesn’t mean I get to have a day off here and there because I’m a bit upset.”

It’s an attitude that has well and truly paid off for Leard. He now regularly plays with the wheelchair basketball stars he grew up idolising.

“The team captain Tristan Knowles, I grew up watching him, trying to be more like Tristan. And now I play with him.”

“I definitely did get starstruck the first couple of times. They don’t see me as someone who looks up to them. They see me as their teammate, which is really awesome,” says Leard with a beaming smile.

While Paralympic medals are on Eithen’s horizon, he is using his time at the QAS for something bigger than himself.

The 18-year-old is determined to pave the way for professional disabled sports to be the norm, not the exception, and to prove to young para-athletes there are real career options in sport.

“I want to be someone that leads the normalisation of high-level disability sports,” says Leard.

“You get opportunities to travel the world if you work hard, the same as if you play able bodied basketball, you get the opportunities to play for your country if you work hard.”

The wheelchair basketballer hasn’t taken this journey on his own. At 15 years old he teamed up with QAS strength and conditioning coach Cam Lane, who has played a pivotal role in the gym, and in life.

“I remember times when I would just whinge to Cam. And he’d sit there and cop it while trying to encourage me to lift weights. He’s been important for me in the gym, but also just life and being able to talk to him about things,” says Leard.

The respect and appreciation Eithen and Cam have for each other is obvious.

“It’s been an honour to work with someone like Eithen and be a part of his journey,” says Cam Lane.

“As a strength and conditioning coach, he’s been able to challenge my thinking, which has helped me grow as a professional in the industry. He’s too strong for a lot of exercises, so we have to challenge him in other ways!”

The QAS Performance Science team has also put Eithen through his paces testing his speed, acceleration, aerobic capacity and agility.

Performance Scientist Tahleya Eggers says the tests play a critical part in creating training plans that maximise Eithen’s playing potential.

“Eithen specifically, he’s got a lot of physical potential. So it’s great to be able to capture that with some objective information. And then use that to inform some training prescription.”

While Eithen admits he doesn’t always enjoy some of the tough training sessions, he does enjoy reminding himself how lucky he is to be living his dream.

“It’s unreal some of the things I’ve experienced and some of the people I’ve met. Everyone dreams of it growing up. And now that you’re doing it you’ve always got to consciously stop and think about what you’re actually doing.”