Meet Jess Gallagher
Jess Gallagher is one of this year’s 100K Your Way ambassadors.
As the first Australian athlete (Olympic or Paralympic) to win both Summer and Winter Paralympic medals, Jess is a prime example of how people living with a disability can still pursue their passions and dreams.
As someone who lives with low vision, Jess is keen to get active this April and raise important funds to help blind and low vision Australians stay independently mobile.
Jess’s extensive resume includes representing Australia in 4 different sports - alpine skiing, athletics, track cycling and rowing.
In 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Paralympics, Jess became the first Australian woman to win a Winter Paralympics medal when she won bronze in the Slalom. She won her second Paralympic medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics - another bronze - this time in the Giant Slalom. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics she won bronze in the 1km Time Trial on the tandem.
Throughout her career she has also won 2 Commonwealth Games gold medals and 11 World Championship medals (athletics and track cycling).
In 2022 and 2023 Jess represented Australia concurrently in rowing and track cycling, qualifying for both in the 2024 Paralympics. With both competitions occurring on the same day in Paris, Jess had a difficult choice to make and elected to move forward with track cycling. This decision proved dividends when at the 2024 Paris Paralympics she won silver on the tandem.
When she’s not winning medals for Australia, Jess is working as an Osteopath and a highly sought-after keynote and motivational speaker. In 2023, she was awarded RMIT University’s highest honour, an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences. Jess has been a Vision Australia ambassador since 2010 and was a board director at Vision 2020 Australia from 2014 to 2023, making her role as a 100K Your Way ambassador a natural alignment.
Jess is beyond excited to lead the way for this year’s 100K Your Way fundraiser.
About Vision Australia
Vision Australia is a leading national provider of blindness and low vision services in Australia. We work in partnership with Australians who are blind or have low vision to help them achieve the possibilities they choose in life.
We support more than 25,500 people of all ages and life stages, and circumstances. We do this through 35 Vision Australia centres in Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia; and through outreach programs in the Northern Territory and Tasmania.
We are a not-for-profit organisation and a major participant and partner in the international blindness community.
You can read more about Vision Australia on the website here.
