Heath Francis is one of Australia’s most consistent and successful Paralympians.

Born and raised in Booral, near Newcastle, Heath had his right arm amputated at the age of seven after an accident on the family farm.

Not to be held back, Francis first represented Australia at the 1998 World Championships in Birmingham.

Francis then exceeded all expectations when he burst out of the blocks at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and picked up gold in the 400m.

He then went on to collect two more gold medals in the 4x100m and 4x400m relay events and a silver medal for the 200m. These results saw him announced as the Junior Male Paralympian of the Year.

Not to be content with this outstanding performance, Francis went on to compete in Athens in 2004 and returned with 3 silver and 2 bronze medals.

In 2006, Francis became the first athlete to win the T46 100m/200m/400m treble at the World Athletics Championships in The Netherlands.

To cap off a great year, Francis was announced as the Male AWD Athlete of the Year at the Athletics Australia 2006 Telstra Athlete of the Year awards.

At the 2008 Beijing Games Francis came home with a swagger of gold medals for the T46 100m, 200m and 400m breaking two world records.

Heath has been an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder since 2003, became a joint winner in the 2008 AIS Athlete of the Year award and credits his coach, Iryna Dvoskina for ‘making me the best athlete possible’.