Twelve-year-old Rowan has less than 5% of his vision remaining.
But he is already faster than his mum and is about to outpace his dad.
In fact, the Forest Lake schoolboy is breaking state and national records left, right and centre.
Rowan’s end goal? The Paralympics, of course.
“He wants to be the fastest blind runner in the world,” Rowan’s dad, John, said.
Rowan was seriously injured in a motocross crash in 2020, which took his vision.
“Since coming out of hospital, he started rehab and got on a treadmill, loved the treadmill and got faster and faster,” John said.
“It just got going from there.”
Rowan recently won gold at the School Sports Australia National Championships in Western Australia in the aquathlon, which included a 1km run, followed by a 100m swim and a second 1km run.
He competes as a T11 athlete, meaning he has the “most severe” vision impairment.
“He always has to run with a guide, so I have had to train and run with him for all his events,” John said.
While John has been his son’s guide for years, he admitted he wouldn’t be able to keep up “for much longer”.
“It is not long before he overtakes me.
“His coaches are always saying he will need someone faster.”
Rowan’s mum, Jill, also tried being her son’s guide. But he is simply too fast.
He trains about five times a week – running all those days and swimming at least once – without hassle or nagging from his parents.
John and Jill are proud of their son.
Most could only imagine the impact of the accident five years ago, and the determination Rowan, only 8 at the time, needed to overcome his injuries.
But his parents say their lives have changed in ways they couldn’t have hoped for.
“I wasn’t running before this – I have dropped 30kg myself keeping up with him,” John said.
“We get up in the morning and say, ‘where are we going today? What are we going to do? Where are going to run?'”
“It has opened so many new doors for us… Never did we think we would have a child breaking Australian records.”
“It gives you goosebumps just thinking about it. It is unbelievable,” Jill added.
Rowan has broken the 100m and 400m national track records, and several other Queensland records – some of which have been held for 30 years.
“It shows there hasn’t been a fast blind runner in that many years,” John said.
