My best and worst moments with Rachael Morrison

Rachael Morrison heads to her first Paralympic Games in September having only taken up Para athletics two years ago. The 29-year-old has already won a world title in the discus F52 as well as silver in the club throw F51. She holds the world record in the discus too.

Here she reveals her ‘best and worst moments’ as she gears up for the biggest stage of all, the Paralympic Games.

My worst moment

I would say Parapan Am Games last year. It was my first big international championship experience and that was a big challenge getting used to the culture and environment. My performance definitely suffered there because of that, but it was definitely a good learning experience before Rio – being in the village and having all that chaos and learning how to cope with that. Everything at this point is about learning experiences for me – so it didn’t go very well, but learning experience is really the name of the game for me right now.

My best moment

These past US Trials – the official team announcement was made and it was like, ‘You’re going to Rio.’ We were all gathered in a conference room the day after the trials and they started with the women, reading down the list. It’s exciting to hear your name called on such a big stage. I’ve never really had an opportunity outside of sport to represent my country in something so visible. It shows the greater community and culture that we can do things, we are able. We aren’t here because of our disabilities, we are here because of our abilities.

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Sport fans from around the world can now buy their Paralympic tickets for Rio 2016 from authorised ticket resellers (ATRs)

The IPC’s Global ATR is Jet Set Sports, and Rio 2016 tickets and packages can be purchased on the CoSport website.

Residents of Brazil can buy 2016 Paralympics tickets directly from the Rio 2016 website.

Visa International is the exclusive payment card and the official payment system for the Paralympic Games.