Curtis McGrath: From Battlefield to Paralympic Gold

A note to young leaders.

“One day you’ll see me at the Paralympics.”

Those were the words said in jest by Curtis McGrath as he lay on a stretcher, bleeding and in shock.

McGrath had just lost both his legs in a mine blast while serving as a combat engineer in Afghanistan in 2012.

It was classic Australian gallows humour.

“I knew both my legs were gone, they weren’t coming back. It was a traumatic day for everyone, and if I could say something to hopefully alleviate that – that’s why I said what I said.”

But gallows humour turned into prophecy – through McGrath’s sheer power of will.

McGrath is now a four-time Paralympic Gold Medalist and Australia’s most decorated Para-canoeist.

Today, McGrath will stand on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt as an Invictus Veteran of Honour – and will deliver the Veteran’s Story at the “Lest We Forget” Anzac Sunset Tribute.

The Sunset Tribute brings together more than 150 of Australia’s finest military, veteran and civilian artists to honour the fallen – alongside The Ode, the Last Post, and the Legacy Torch of Remembrance.

It’s free. It’s public. And it will be one of the most powerful hours of the Anzac calendar.

Hope to see you there.