Leading the Australian Paralympic Team to Success: A Chef de Mission’s Journey at the 2024 Paris Games

Hi, I’m Kate Mcloughlin, Chef de mission of the Australian Paralympic Team and we’re here in Paris for the 2024 Paralympic Games. My role as chef de mission is to pull together all of the aspects of organisation that get our team to the games. So whether it be operational, logistics, media, uh, performance services and medical, uh, we bring, I’m in charge of all of the people that bring things together to make sure the athletes have the most amazing performance environment, uh, to form when it counts on the world stage in Paris. I became chef de mission after being Deputy Chef de mission at the London 2012 Games and have been chef de mission for the team, uh, for the last three Summer Games and one Winter Games. We are so lucky to have Kate, um, as our leader. And I think she brings so many amazing skills, but I think the key thing she does is she brings people together. The way she interacts, the way she communicates. I just feel we’re just so lucky to have her as our leader. The Woolworths sponsorship has such an incredible impact on our fleet, enables us to invest more heavily in making sure that athletes with disabilities have great opportunities with Paralympic sport, but also it makes sure that our Australian Paralympic team gets to the Paris Games and have everything they need to perform when it counts. And it’s, uh, it’s just amazing to see our athlete Use their platform, um, to change the way the world sees disability. Uh, they’re amazing advocates. They’re trailblazers. They’re trailblazers. And, um, I’m so proud to be able to lead them.