Rosemary Little (athletics) earned an invite to her first Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as a top eight ranked athlete in the Commonwealth in the women’s 100m T33/34 where she placed sixth.

Rosemary contracted a form of autoimmune encephalitis when she was 12 which resulted in spontaneous quadriplegia and uncontrollable muscle contractures. This meant that she had to re-learn all the skills that she had acquired to that point and has no memory of her life between the ages of 12 and 18. 

Rosemary started competing in athletics attending a ‘come and try’ day in 2003 when she was 20, her star rising quickly as she came agonisingly close to qualifying for the Athens Paralympics the following year. Illness and frustration led to an eight-year break before she decided to try again, making the London 2012 Paralympic team where she won bronze in the 100m T34. After three top five finishes on the track at her second Paralympics in Rio in 2016, Rosemary was again struck down by illness, forcing a reclassification and a switch to shot put where she placed fifth at her third Paralympics in Tokyo. At her fourth Games in Paris in 2024, she finished sixth in the shot put F32 and set an Oceania record in finishing 13th in the club throw.

She has also won three medals at the World Para-Athletics Championships: silver (200m T34) and bronze (100m T34) in Lyon in 2013, as well as bronze in the shot put F32 in Paris in 2023.

Rosemary is coached by four-time Commonwealth Games hammer thrower Karyne Di Marco and Breanne Clement. The versatile athlete has also competed internationally in hand cycling and Para-rowing.

Rosemary is a qualified occupational therapist and has also studied speech and audiology at Macquarie University in Sydney.