James Michael Apsley Turner, (born 22 May 1996) is an Australian Paralympic athlete and soccer player with cerebral palsy. He has represented Australia as part of the Australia Paralympic soccer team, the ParaRoos, and was its player of the year in 2013. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he won the Men's 800m T36 in a world record time of 2:02.39. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics . At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, he won two gold medals including a world record in the 400m T36. At the

World Para Athletics Championships The World Para Athletics Championships, known as the IPC Athletics World Championships prior to 2017, are a biennial Paralympic athletics event organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It ...

from 2017 to 2023, he has won 7 gold medals.

Personal

James Turner was born on 22 May 1996 in Penrith, New South Wales. He has

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

. He grew up in Diamond Beach, New South Wales. In 2015, he commenced a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at the

University of Wollongong The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public university, public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately south of Sydney. , the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 s ...

. He has since moved to Canberra and commenced a Bachelor of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Canberra.

Football

Turner played 7-a-side soccer as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

starting in 2009, and for the Australian national 7-a-side team, the Pararoos, in 2012. By November 2013, he had 16 caps, and was named Paralympic Football Player of the Year at the 2013 FFA Australian Football Awards night on 13 November 2013. The head coach of the Pararoos, Paul Brown, said that "James has pace to burn and he gets forward on the overlap to worry defenders in their third. He has the potential to be one of the best players that Australia has ever produced if he stays on the path that he is at present". Unfortunately for the Pararoos, ranked tenth in the world, in July 2014 the Australian Sports Commission cut funding for the 7-a-side soccer program on the grounds that the team was unlikely to make the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, f ...

. After a public outcry, the team was revived with a new funding model in 2015. Despite the fundraising efforts, the Pararoos failed to qualify for Rio.

Athletics

Turner started with Forster-Tuncurry Athletics club as an eight-year-old and at the age of 15 joined the Hunter Academy of Sport AWD middle-distance running program. In 2015, Turner turned his talents to back athletics on the encouragement of Athletics Australia, where he is classified as a T36 athlete. He was coached first by Marie Kay and from 2016 by Brett Robinson in

Wollongong, New South Wales Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

. At the Australian Athletics Championships in March 2016, he ran the 800m in 2:08.90, which was a Paralympic qualifier. In the IPC Grand Prix in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

February, he had posted an even faster time of 2.08.8. In August 2016, it was announced that had been selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

in the 800m event. He was ranked number two in the world in this event in his classification. Turner 400m gold Tokyo MM edit

At the

, Turner won the Men's 800m T36 in a world record time of 2:02.39. In December 2016, he was named Australian Paralympic Rookie of the Year. At the

2017 World Para Athletics Championships The 2017 World Para Athletics Championships were a Paralympic athletics, Paralympic track and field meet organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee. It was held at London Stadium in London from 14 ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Turner won three gold medals – Men's 200m T36 (world record time 24.09 (−0.4)), Men's 400m T36 and Men's 800m T36. After the London 2017 World Para-Athletics Championships, Turner moved to Canberra to be coached by Iryna Dvoskina at the

Australian Institute Of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

. Turner's Rio Paralympics gold medal event, the 800m, is not on the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics program. As a result, he has changed to short distances – currently the 100m and 400m. At the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, Turner ran 11.72 and broke the world record in winning the Men's 100m T36 and followed up with gold in the Men's 400m T36 in a world record time of 51.71. Turner competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. He won gold in the Men's 400 metres T36, setting a new games record with a time of 52.80. He also won silver in the Men's 100 m T36 having qualified first in his heat. At the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, Turner won gold medals in the Men's 100m and 400m T36 events. In the lead up the 2024 Paralympics, he won the silver medal in the Men's 400m T36 at the 2024 World Para Athletics Championships, in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. At the 2024 Paris Paralympics, he won two gold medal in T36 events - 100m in 11.85 (Paralympic record) and 400m in 51.54 (World record). He was named para sport athlete of the year in the 2024 Canberra sports awards.

Recognition

* 2016 – Athletics Australia - Male Para-athlete of the Year. * 2017 – Medal of the Order of Australia in 2017. * 2017 – Athletics Australia - Male Para-athlete of the Year. *2019 – Athletics Australia - Male Para-athlete of the Year. *2021 - CBR Sports Awards - Athlete of the Year - Para Sport *2023 - AIS Sport Performance Awards - Male Para-Athlete of the Year; Athletics Australia - Russell Short Award for Male Para Athlete of the Year *2024 - Flag bearer with Lauren Parker at the Closing Ceremony of the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France. *2024 - CBR Sports Awards - Athlete of the Year - Para Sport, Australian Male Paralympian of the Year, AIS Sport Performance Awards - Male Para-Athlete of the Year, Athletics Australia - Russell Short Award for Male Para Athlete of the Year

References

External links

* *
Athletics Australia Biography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, James Living people 1996 births Paralympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2024 Summer Paralympics Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia World record holders in para-athletics Medalists at the World Para Athletics Championships World Para Athletics Championships winners Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Australian male sprinters Australian male middle-distance runners Athletes from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales 21st-century Australian sportsmen