Create an experience with Ben Sainsbury

I am a 23 year old, 2x World champion in the sport of Paracanoe.

Growing up as a kid my life was spent chasing a dream in motocross, unfortunately in 2017 I had a crash at a training session which resulted in becoming a T4 paraplegic. As a 16 year old having such a life changing accident, being told you will never walk again and having your childhood dream taken away from you, Is definitely something that is hard to deal with. My injury gave me lots of challenges physically and mentally that took a lot of growing as a person to deal with. After nearly 4months in hospital it was time for me to take my new life head on, I went onto graduating year 12 and completing a cert 3 in technical engineering but for me felt like something was missing and that athlete inside of me wasn’t satisfied which took me to give wheelchair basketball a go. I got some amazing opportunities in wheelchair basketball in a 2 year career I was able to be apart of a winning under 23 national championship team, played in the mens national league and represented Australia in Japan at a under 23 tournament. As much as I enjoyed basketball for me I really wanted to get back to being a individual athlete, this is where I was given the opportunity to give Paracanoe a go, which I fell in love with straight away. I have had a amazing career so far in the sport winning 8 national championships, won 2 World Cups and 2 World championship.. I am very passionate for the sport and love the daily grind of being a elite athlete and look forward to seeing what the future holds for me in the sport.

Since my accident I have had to overcome a lot of adversity, I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing companies sharing my story of resilience, but also advocating in disability awareness and normalising disabilities within schools and businesses. I'm very passionate in sharing my story and being a role model to help motivate others to be better within themselves and give them my personal experiences to help them deal with things they may face in life.

Within my life I have had a lot of mental barriers to over come, with my accident, being an athlete and also just the challenges of life living with a disability. I'm very passionate in the space of mental health after finding myself suicidal in 2019. I've been through the struggles of depression which is why I am so passionate talking to others about it as I feel like I can connected to them on a personal level.