Rae Anderson is an Australian Paralympian and Para Matilda. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Summer Paralympics in athletics and at the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics in alpine skiing, becoming the seventh Australian Paralympic athlete and only second female to represent Australia at a Summer and Winter Paralympics. A month after Beijing, Rae followed this achievement by being selected in the Australian Para Matildas squad placing Runners Up at the Inaugural Female Football World Cup.
At age one she was diagnosed with Left Hemiplegic Dystonic and Spastic Cerebral Palsy, not being expected to walk unassisted. This was followed by ongoing physiotherapy, several multilevel surgeries and rehabilitation. "I competed for my primary school in able-bodied sports including soccer, hockey, oz tag, futsal and athletics; with the goal of one day competing for Australia in soccer - having cerebral palsy and learning about the Paralympics made that goal a possibility”.
In 2018 she took a year-long break from elite sport to focus on her studies. She moved to Indonesia for six months to pursue a degree in cultural studies at the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, where all her units were in Indonesian.
She has worked as Co-Director at University Bridge Project, a cultural exchanges initiative between Australian and Indonesian university students. In January 2021, she began working part-time as Project Coordinator at Disability Sports Australia whilst also working for Cerebral Palsy Sporting and Recreation Association in a similar role since May 2017.
“My personal goal has and always will be to become the best person I can be regardless of my abilities and disabilities. Sport has given me so much, and my goal is to give back to the developing Paralympic movement, through my story and my experiences to support my community and nurture the young athletes who will become the next Olympians, Paralympians, medallists and dreamers.”
