Hamish MacDonald, the Australian Institute of Sport’s long-serving scholarship holder for an athlete with a disability, is retiring from shot-put competition after a glittering career in which he won medals at six Paralympic Games — including a swag of gold.

We caught up with Hamish, 38, as he prepares for the birth of his first child to discuss the challenges and opportunities for athletes with a disability and his future career ambitions.

What are some of the challenges of supporting athletes with a disability at the entry level?

There was a quote from a person working at a national level some years ago who said: ‘We’re happy to produce or create the opportunities; we need to find the people to access them’. So linking the people who are out there with the opportunities that the sports are willing to provide, is the biggest challenge.

Another challenge is providing the dialogue between the sporting organisation and the relevant communities, whether it is the disability community, Indigenous communities or people from a culturally and linguistically diverse community. I think we can help bridge this gap by creating an ongoing dialogue so that the people we’re trying to attract know we’re trying to attract them.

What areas could we have the greatest impact?

On the whole, the willingness to help all people is higher and I think that in itself is a good thing. If you look at high performance sport, there have been big inroads in terms of national sporting organisations taking greater responsibility. It’s far more challenging for sporting organisations to cater for athletes at the grassroots level so that’s probably where the greater impact of our work could be.

Are there any particular growth markets or growth sports for athletes with a disability?

I think swimming is making some serious inroads into growing locally driven opportunities for people with disability and allowing participation based on their skill level. There’s also football, which is another local example that’s doing a great job. Capital Football is providing the right type of opportunities for new and emerging markets, which includes people with disability.

Now that you’re retiring from competitive athletics, what’s on the horizon for you?

It’s a long-term aspiration [to coach]. It’s not something I’m going to jump straight into. Quality coaches can take a long time to evolve. After 20 years [as an elite athlete] I’d like to think that I’m in a position to contribute. If I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, there’s an opportunity to help kids at a local level who are interested in accessing athletics.

Over time, I’d like to potentially become a qualified coach. I’ve been doing the Australian Sports Commission online course and so far I’ve been involved locally in a very low-key way. I recently attended a camp to help develop athletes as part of the Paralympic Road to Rio program. So it’s going to be a slow transition and I don’t have any expectations in terms of becoming a fully fledged coach at international level any time soon, but it’s something I aspire to.