“Go home and make yourself comfortable. Don’t expect to see your 40th Birthday”. These were the words told to Janine Watson when she was diagnosed at the age of 25 with Multiple Sclerosis.
Her idea of comfortable however, was to take up the sport of Taekwondo, a full contact martial art, where the aim is to knock the other person out with a kick.
Despite numerous challenges and heartbreaking setbacks along the way, Janine’s resilience and indomitable spirit shone through and she was able to etch her name into the history books by winning not one, but three World Championships and most recently, at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Australia’s first ever Paralympic medal in the sport of Taekwondo – ironically at the age of 40.
But Janine didn’t stop there. She also took up the sport of Wheelchair Tennis during this time winning four consecutive Australian Singles titles between 2016 and 2019 and becoming Australia’s number one female in Wheelchair Tennis.
Her passion is inspiring others to focus on what they can do and not what they can't. Working for Education Queensland for 18 years as a Teacher, Head of Department and Deputy Principal in both the Primary and Secondary Education sectors, Janine has seen the importance of teaching young people to have a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset and to value effort rather than ability.
As an MS QLD ambassador, Janine’s passion is awareness and education within the community to break down some of the misconceptions of what it means to be living with a disability and to ensure that no one living with MS is doing it alone.
Unfortunately, due to a classification rule change, Janine is no longer able to compete in the sport of Para-Taekwondo. But rather than that being the end of her sporting career, she decided to take up a brand new sport – Wheelchair badminton. Within 9 months of playing the sport, Janine is now ranked in the top 20 in the World.
Now, with the odds stacked heavily against her, Janine faces the almost impossible challenge to be able to qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games – making it to at least 8 international tournaments in 2023 and performing well enough for the chance of qualifying for Paris. And to make this task even more challenging – completely self-funded.
