From the Navy to the Paralympics: meet Matt Brumby
Matt Brumby is a South Australian Paralympian who has been living with a spinal cord injury for 26 years. Over that time, he's raced triathlon, won a Half Ironman world title, co-captained Team Australia at the Invictus Games, and most recently represented Australia in cross-country skiing and biathlon at the 2026 Milano Winter Paralympics. Matt lives in Adelaide with his dog, Willow, and works closely with Kate Harris from Estara's occupational therapy team to keep him competing at the top level.
From the Navy to the Winter Paralympics
Matt Brumby joined the Navy at 16, training to become a clearance diver. When he turned 22, his life changed.
"I collapsed on the beach and then ended up having a pocket of fluid form inside my spine, which caused me to be paralysed from T6 down at 22 years old," Matt says.
In his first week in the acute spinal unit in Sydney, Matt saw two 16-year-old boys arrive, paralysed as passengers in a car accident through no fault of their own. He also learned that a friend from his Navy ship had died in a car accident. It put things into perspective. “All of a sudden you have these reality checks” Matt says. “Let's see what we can do from here. Twenty-six years later, we’re still rolling along.”
Finding sport
Matt didn't find sport straight away. He watched the Sydney 2000 Paralympics from his hospital bed, tried a few other options, and eventually landed on triathlon in 2010.
"Maybe sport is something that I'm missing in my life," he says of that turning point. He went on to win a Half Ironman world title in 2016, but missed selection for the Rio Paralympics that same year. The disappointment led to a hard reset in 2017.
"2017, I wasn't depressed, I was in reset mode. It needed to kick me to say, what am I going to do?" Matt says. The answer was the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, where he served as co-captain, followed by a full Ironman in Hawaii in 2019.
A new sport, and a new team
After moving to Adelaide, three years of Ironman races were pushed back, and Matt found himself without a focus. Then a friend called about a very different challenge.
"Randomly, I got a phone call from a mate of mine, he was talking about cross-country skiing and biathlon," Matt says. He was in. "It's the hardest thing you could physically do in a wheelchair, cross-country skiing. There's no brakes, there's no steering, it's all arm drive."
Getting the equipment right
Getting to the start line in a new sport means getting the equipment right, and that's where Estara's Senior Occupational Therapist, Kate Harris, came in. Matt has used many occupational therapists over years in a wheelchair, but says his experience with Kate has been different.
"I've been in a wheelchair for 26 years and Kate is the best OT I’ve had." he says. "Kate's been amazing."
Kate worked closely with Matt on the design of his sit ski, balancing pressure care, comfort and performance. It's a process of trial and error. An early carbon version was lighter and easier to climb in, but too flexible to be functional in competition.
"We figured out lightest isn't best." Matt says.
Kate says sporting equipment has to be built around the individual, not the other way around. "Sporting equipment is very individualised to the person and particularly around what level of competition you want to do, whether that's recreational or whether that's high level," she says. For an athlete like Matt, that means fine-tuning the sit ski again and again, chasing the small gains that matter at the top level.
That work paid off at the Milano Winter Paralympics this year, where Matt was part of the largest team Australia has ever sent to a Winter Games.
"We were the biggest team we've ever had in 20 years. We've only ever had two athletes go to the Paralympics." Matt says. He hopes the visibility of the Games encourages more people to get into winter sport, and more people with disability to try sport of any kind.
Willow 🐾
Alongside the athletes, coaches and therapists in Matt's corner is Willow, his dog of eight years. Matt met Willow at the Invictus Games in Sydney, where Integra Service Dogs Australia supplied dogs for competitors who couldn't bring their own.
"She is a repurposed seeing eye dog who was released from the program." Matt says. Learning to work together didn't happen overnight. "It literally took me a year to get used to working with Willow."
Since then, the two have barely been apart. "She travels everywhere, all over the world," Matt says, with two trips to Canada, four months in Europe, and around 40 domestic flights between them. She has her own mat for the plane and knows the routine (and staff) at Adelaide Airport by heart.
It's the small, everyday moments that count most. Asked when Willow has helped him, Matt says it happens constantly, often without warning. "All the time. And it's the little things," he says. "All of a sudden her head is plopped on your lap."
Health comes first
After everything Matt has achieved, his focus now is on staying well enough to keep going.
"Healthy means longevity. I think the healthier we are, the less burden it puts on the whole system," he says. "Mental health comes with physical health." It's taken him a long time to put that first. "I finally started asking for help," he says.
Matt's message for others is simple: don't go it alone. "You're only as strong as your support network. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done," he says. "Reach out to your local organisation, reach out to anybody, have a chat."
Estara's new Wheelchair Community Sports SA Program is designed to make that first step easier, with a digital hub connecting people to sporting pathways, come-and-try events, and sporting scholarships to help with the cost of equipment. As Matt's story shows, the right support behind you can take you further than you think.