Julie Higgins

Julie Elizabeth Higgins, OAM is an Australian equestrian rider who won two gold medals at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney.

Personal Higgins was born in Sydney on 28 February 1958. She was born with Fanconi syndrome, which robs the bones of calcium and causes malabsorption of phosphate, vitamins, and sugar. Doctors did not expect her to live beyond the age of ten. During her sixteen-year hiatus from the sport, she taught her husband, Phillip, how to ride, and was his coach and groom when he competed in eventing and show jumping.

Career

Inspired by television footage of the inaugural equestrian event at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, Higgins took horseriding up again, with the aim of competing at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney. Her family and friends were concerned about the impact that the sport would have on her deteriorating hip joints, and she made a pact with her husband that she would give up the sport if she did not do well at the next British national Championships for Riders with Disabilities, which were to be held six months later. She won the British championships at both the national and international level in the Grade 3 classification from 1997 to 1999. She was randomly selected to work with a 14-year-old pinto gelding named Kaleidoscope for the games, formerly known as Magpie, who she admired "more than any other horse". for which she received a Medal of the Order of Australia, She was Australia's first equestrian Paralympic gold medallist. That year, she received an Australian Sports Medal, and in 2001, she received a Centenary Medal. She also received an Award of Excellence for International Competition from the Equestrian Federation of Australia, a Sir Roden Cutler Award, and the 2002 Australia Day Sportsperson of the Year award from the City of Hawkesbury.