Jonathan Goerlach (triathlon) made his Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham where he won bronze in the men’s PTVI event alongside sighted guide Dave Mainwaring. At 15, Jono was diagnosed with Usher Syndrome Type II – a hearing and degenerative visual impairment which means he has no peripheral vision, suffers night blindness and has only tunnel vision. He has been classed as legally blind since he was 18 years old and is classified as less severe partially sighted (PTVI3). As a result, he gave up playing sport after he left school and ignored his deteriorating condition. Frustrated and depressed, he moved overseas in 2010, working in Amsterdam as a sports massage therapist dealing with many clients who were runners. He was inspired to pull on his running shoes again and started training with a running squad. In 2012, he decided to take up triathlon and represented Australia at his first ITU World Championships in Auckland later that year. Jono was poised to qualify for the Rio 2016 Paralympics before his disability category was omitted from the program. Fighting on – and switching to train in Wollongong in 2018 under Brendan Sexton – he finished on top of the podium at the 2020 ITU World Paratriathlon Series in Devonport and 8th at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. Jono has a Bachelor of Sports Management from the University of Canberra and works for the National Disability Insurance Agency.