They’re Australia’s first gold medal winners in Paralympic rowing, but Jed Altschwager and Nikki Ayers have gained something far more special through the sport – a lifelong friendship.
Jed Altschwager was just 250m into the race of his life -– the final of the PR3 Mixed Double Sculls at the 2024 Paris Paralympics – when he realised something was wrong.
“I’m up the front of the boat in the stroke seat, and one of my things I like to do is look down at a little computer to give me some stroke data, just to make sure I’m not over-cooking it, or under-cooking it,” he recalls.
“I look down, as I normally do, to see where we’re at and my stroke coach is off. It’s never been off before in a race. Why is this happening 250m into the biggest race in my entire life?”
Luckily, Jed was not alone in the boat. Behind him, teammate and friend Nikki Ayers was there to give just the kind of reassurance he needed.
“I was like, ‘Nikki, stroke coach off’. And then … it was just this amazing, confirming voice from Nikki, going, ‘Yep’. And I knew we’d be fine.”
The injuries that changed their lives
Jed was just 28 when his left foot was crushed under an excavator in a workplace accident, leading to an amputation below the knee.
“You’ve got to work through feelings of acceptance, of trying to find what’s next for you and where you fit in,” he says.
“So you go through this journey and what I found was that sport could really help to bring that sense of community, that sense of still being able to push yourself and achieve something.”
Nikki had a similar experience. Growing up in a sports-mad family on the New South Wales south coast, she initially turned her attention to rugby league and then union, captaining the ACT Women’s Brumbies 7s team.
“That was the game I was going to wear the green and gold for, I was going to play for the Wallaroos,” she says.
But in 2016, a tackle in a game saw the end of that dream. She dislocated her knee, tearing three ligaments, damaging a main artery and nerve and resulting in foot drop. After 16 surgeries in nine months, her foot was saved, but her rugby career was over.
The start of something special
Nikki and Jed met for the first time at a Train4Tokyo camp in 2017 and immediately clicked.
“We had really similar values and just shared a lot of great conversation,” Jed says.
Over the next few years, their friendship grew, catching up not only on the Para Rowing circuit, but also making the effort to have a beer together, or hang out with family when they could.
In 2021, Nikki made the team for Tokyo, coming fourth in the PR3 Mixed Cox Four, but Jed missed out on selection. So when the PR3 Mixed Double was announced for the Paris Games, he was straight on the phone to Nikki.
“There were some phone calls, some conversations. We knew we could do some damage in this category and so it just started there,” says Jed.
Adds Nikki: “One of those first conversations was, if we’re going to do this, we want to look for gold. That was the thing we had in common – we wanted to do this, and do it well. I knew Jed as an athlete and as a person, and I knew he was going to give 110% just like I was.”
After completing her midwifery studies in Canberra, Nikki relocated to Adelaide to train with Jed.
“I just chucked whatever I could fit in my Toyota Corolla and came on down here to Adelaide,” she says. “And SASI just welcomed me with open arms straight away. It was like I’d been here throughout my whole sporting career.”
When the training gets tough, the tough get training
As Jed puts it: “Rowing, in general, is a very hard sport. It’s a lot of sessions, six days a week, two or three sessions a day. It’s a full time gig.”
On top of training, Jed had to balance family life with two young children, and Nikki was working part time about 16 hours a week as a midwife at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
“Nikki is a weapon,” Jed says. “The shift work – I don’t know how she did it. So many mornings I was like, well, I got up for one kid once, but Nikki hasn’t even slept, and now we’re going for a huge row. It was very impressive.”
Nikki says it was their friendship and trust in each other that got them both through the tough times.
“What we did was create a safe space for each other so we could have conversations where we could be vulnerable and open and honest,” she says.
“It was a big thing coming down here, and being female and disabled and also identifying as part of the LGBTQI community. There were some things I experienced in life that I was able to talk to Jed about, and he was so open and understanding.
“There were definitely a few times out on the water where there’d be big tears from one of us, we’d have that chat, and then just get on with it and have an amazing training session.”
Paris bound for 2024
After winning gold at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in Belgrade, Jed and Nikki arrived in Paris with the weight of expectation resting heavily on their shoulders.
“This time around, there was so much more pressure on us, coming in as world record holders and world champions as well. So it was a lot heavier than Tokyo, that green and gold zooty (rowing uniform),” Nikki says.
“But what made it lighter was doing it with Jed, having our processes, having the support of SASI, and especially having our families there … it was the first time our families had ever seen us race internationally.
“They were there every single day, pushing me through all my surgeries – 16 surgeries in nine months – and I don’t know if I could have made it without them.”
The race of a lifetime
After a solid performance in the heat, their focus turned firmly to the final two days later. Nikki recalls taking some big deep breaths as they lined up for their final race.
“We gave Christine MacLaren, our coach, a fist bump and a hug off the pontoon. And then it was just us, there was no one else around,” she says.
“Going up to the start line, and your heart is just racing, it’s beating out of your chest.”
After Jed’s stroke coach scare, they looked up to see Great Britain pushing them hard.
“GB really stuck it to us. At the 1km (mark), usually I’ve got full vision of them… but they were there, right next to us,” says Jed.
Adds Nikki: “At that 1km I think they were like .03 seconds behind us. And people who didn’t know how we raced were just so worried. But I knew our race, man, and we weren’t going to make a move yet.
“Coming into the last 700m and we made our call, we just upped our rate, upped our intensity, and just really fine tuned that technique. And as soon as we did that, we started making our way in front of the GB crew.
“And coming into the last 300m you could hear the noise from the grandstand, and it was just like, oh my God, the race is almost over, we gotta get this.
“And we’re going harder and harder, and we could feel the energy still there, but also the feeling of tiredness and the fatigue. And I’m yelling at Jed, and internally yelling at myself. And then I could finally see the bubble line.”
Winners are grinners
Crossing in first place, Nikki says her first feeling was excitement.
“Jed laid back to catch his breath and I thought it was a great opportunity to give him a hug, so I’m hugging him and yelling at him ‘we did it, we bloody did it’ and he says ‘thanks mate, but you’re choking me, I can’t breathe’ and he’s pulling my arm off him,” she says, laughing.
“And then he’s like ‘wait, can you push me up?’ because he couldn’t even get himself back up, he was so exhausted.”
Adds Jed: “Getting to the national anthem, getting to the medal ceremony, seeing your flag raised, getting presented with a gold medal, and having your family in the crowd, it’s something we’ll never forget. It was phenomenal.”
So what’s next?
It’s been a busy few months for the duo since Paris. They’ve been named SASI Para Athletes of the Year, as well as Para Crew of the Year at the 2024 Rowing Australia awards and Team of the Year at the Paralympian of the Year Awards. And last week, they were each awarded the Medal of the Order (OAM) of Australia for their contributions to the sport.
For Nikki, Los Angeles 2028 isn’t off the cards, but now it’s time to just rest and relax. Since her injury in 2016, she’s been busy juggling life as an elite athlete with study and a career in nursing and midwifery.
“I just want to travel, have some fun, and really focus on my career for a little bit,” she says.
Jed recently announced his retirement – “I knew I was ready to be done with elite sport, to spend more time with my wife and two kids” – and has taken up a position at SASI supporting para athletes and identifying new talent.
“I could not have asked the universe for a more amazing role to come out,” he says.
“It’s an exciting time to be part of para sport in the country, and also in this beautiful state of South Australia with SASI leadership really pushing into the para space and trying to expand it and get more awareness around it.”
And he’s excited to help others find success, purpose, strength – and friendship – through para sports.
“Being in Paris, representing your country, being in the Paralympic team, once you digest it all you realise, oh, this is way bigger than our seven-and-half-minute race.
“This whole thing, this movement … it’s a humanitarian act, in a way, that showcases just what’s possible for the entire world to see.”
