Heath Francis

Heath Wesley Francis, OAM^[1] (born 16 November 1981 in Newcastle, New South Wales^[2] is an Australian athlete who has participated in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Paralympics. His right arm was amputated at the age of seven as a result of a mincing accident on his family farm in Booral, New South Wales.^[3]

Heath Francis

Action shot of Francis during his gold medal run in the 400 m T46 at the 2000 Summer Paralympic's
Personal information
Full name	Heath Wesley Francis
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1981-11-16) 16 November 1981 (age 43) Newcastle, New South Wales
Medal record Representing  Australia Athletics Paralympic Games 2000 Sydney Men's 400m T46 2000 Sydney Men's 4×100m T46 2000 Sydney Men's 4×400m T46 2008 Beijing Men's 100m T46 2008 Beijing Men's 200m T46 2008 Beijing Men's 400m T46 2000 Sydney Men's 200m T46 2004 Athens Men's 100m T46 2004 Athens Men's 400m T46 2004 Athens Men's 4×400m T42-T46 2004 Athens Men's 200m T46 2004 Athens Men's 4×100m T42-T46 2008 Beijing Men's 4×100m T42–T46 IPC Athletics World Championships 1998 Birmingham Men's 4x400m Relay T42-46 2006 Assen Men's 100m T46 2006 Assen Men's 200m T46 2006 Assen Men's 400m T46 2002 Lille Men's 200m T46 Commonwealth Games 2006 Melbourne Men's 200m

Francis shown wrapped in the Australian flag and holding his gold medal won in the Men's 4 x 100 m T46 relay at the 2000 Summer Paralympic Games

Professional Competitive career

At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics he became the first arm amputee athlete to win the sprint treble (100m, 200m and 400m events) at a Paralympics, a feat he accomplished 2 years earlier at the 2006 IPC World Championships. He competes in the T46 classification for arm amputees, where he is the current 200m (21.74s) & 400m (47.63s) World Record holder. Both World Record times were run at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. In 2000, his competitive sport participation was sponsored by the New South Wales WorkCover.

He received a Medal of The Order of Australia for his 2000 gold medals.^[1] He also received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Centenary Medal in 2001. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder from 2003 to 2010 and was coached by Irina Dvoskina. In 2014, he was inducted into the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre Path of Champions.

Francis at the end of the 400m at the 2008 Beijing Games

Personal life

Heath Francis completed his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Business Degrees from the University of Newcastle (2000–2007) whilst training at the Australian Institute of Sport.^[4]

Francis turned his focus to advancing his professional career and used his profile as a Paralympic athlete to increase awareness of .^[5] He currently works for Westpac Bank. He also had joined charity organization like CARE Australia and The Australian Himalayan Foundation.

As an ambassador for Good Return, Francis join Charity event like Sun run Archived 29 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, had raised more than $17,000 for funding training and consumer protection work to give people living in poverty the chance to grow their incomes safely and effectively.^[6]