Mural in Dunedoo honours Jamieson

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Jamieson Leeson was awarded a Sport AccessFoundation grant in 2019. At the time she was preparing for her HSC, and training to qualify for Tokyo Paralympics. Then COVID hit, and plans were changed.

She forged on and would go on to represent Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in the Teams event (in 2021), making it to the qualifying finals. The following year she represent Australia at the 2022 Boccia World Championships in Rio in the Teams and Single events. There she won gold in the Teams event with Daniel Michel, and is current reigning World Champion and made the Finals in the single event..

Read on for Jamieson’s story on the support of Dunedoo as she seeks to claim the Gold in Paris.

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Credit: Boccia Australia

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Leeson, who was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy when she was 18 months old, went on to make her Paralympic debut after only a year of competing in boccia. 

“Growing up, I didn’t have any sport available tome,” Leeson said.  

“In the country there’s no Para sport let alone boccia. I would have to travel two hours to Orange and only did that a few weekends because it wasn’t a very big club.” 

The central western town is home to just over1,000 people and now Leeson has a huge mural of herself, proudly cheering on the girl from Dunedoo.  

“My journey in Boccia has really been short in comparison to a lot of other people,” she said. 

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“I learnt and basically got into Boccia – I thinkit was around July or August of 2018 and then by May of 2019 I was at my firstinternational event.  

“Going to Paris is giving me so manyopportunities, to share the word about disabled sports and so much about bocciabecause it is such a small sport.” 

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For Leeson, becoming a Paralympian is about morethan the opportunity to represent her country; she wants to inspire others whohave similar hopes and dreams.  

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“One of my short-term goals for this year is to start a club to hopefully get some new players,” she said. 

“In the long term I really want to make a difference in the country and get out to regional areas. 

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“I didn’t think Boccia was going to be for me but look where I am now. You never know where life is going to take you, really.” 

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