PARALYMPICS 2024: 'Don't tell me I can't' - Archer Shaun Anderson ready for another successful shot

JOHANNESBURG –  They say disability is the gift that keeps giving, but you don’t always unwrap what you want. This is the case with Shaun Anderson.

In 2004, Anderson had his arm amputated after a motorbike accident. He picked up archery as a sport while looking for an activity to do with his son, and became motivated to try it out after hearing staff at an archery shop say he could not shoot with one arm.

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"When they said, 'You can't do it', I just replied, 'Don't tell me I can't do something,” Anderson told Eyewitness News.

He and many of Team South Africa's Paralympians spoke to EWN ahead of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games, which kick off on Thursday.

He went on to compete at the highest level, and represented the country. But another accident, this time involving a boat, in 2017, left him paralysed from the waist down.

The Paralympic archer is heading to Paris for his third Games after experiencing more than most people do in their lifetime. And he plans to give it everything he has in him.

“I mean, to represent my country at the highest sporting achievement in the world, three times in a row. It’s amazing, and in my sport, it hasn't been done in Africa or South Africa. So, it's quite a big honour. I think going into my third Paralympics, I'm a lot more prepared.”

The 51-year-old reflected on the previous Paralympic Games, telling Eyewitness News he’s 100 times more mentally prepared than physically, even though he’s fitter than he was 12 years ago.

“The first Paralympics was a total mind-blower; Rio was totally off the charts. Tokyo was a downer, I mean, going into Tokyo, I ended up having an accident just before Tokyo, so I ended up in a wheelchair. So, Tokyo was really tough. It was a whole new, division, new everything.”

At the Tokyo Games, he finished 9th in the Individual W1, and at the Rio Games, he finished 17th in the Individual Compound Open.

The difference between the two classifications is that in the Compound Open, he competed with archers with little strength in their arms, namely archers who shoot from a sitting position at a distance of 50m, at an 80cm five-ring target made up of the 10-6 point bands.

In his current classification, the W1 is for quadriplegic archers with an impairment in the lower limbs, trunk, and one arm, and shoot from 50m at a 10-band 80cm target.

“Tokyo was really hard - it was a whole new division, new everything, but I still did very well. This one, I’m mentally 100 times more prepared.”

He told Eyewitness News that archery was an expensive sport to get into, but expressed his willingness to assist anyone who wanted to take it up.

“I always say to people who want to get involved in it, contact me, because in the beginning it is quite an expensive sport to get into, but once you're in, it's [an] amazing sport.

"What I do is, everybody I start working with, I help with equipment in the beginning, get them going, and as we start progressing, we start upgrading equipment. And that's why I opened my own shop, to bring in stuff from overseas at better prices for guys, to help them get going easier. It's my passion.”

You can catch Anderson's first shot on 29 August at 09:00. For a detailed breakdown of more Paralympic Games events, click here.