When Andre Rivett steps into the throwing circle, you know something good is about to happen.
The crowd chants on “The Hulk” — a nickname the champion shot put and discus thrower earned years ago for his strength, size, and love of the superhero — and the 28-year-old Logan athlete delivers.
This was the case at last week’s Virtus Athletics World Championships, where Andre, the first Down Syndrome athlete to represent Australia in athletics, took on the world’s best athletes with intellectual disabilities.
Competing in the II-2 classification, Andre might have missed out on first place for both of his events, but he left a happy chap after throwing a personal best in the discus and breaking his own state record with a 26.72-metre effort to finish fourth.
“He was in third all the way through to the very last thrower of the comp, and then the Egyptian boy got him on the very last throw,” Andre’s dad, Steven Rivett, said.
“But he was very happy because he’d thrown a PB and broken his state record.”
The following day, Andre added a bronze medal in shot put — another strong performance in what his father called “the best six-throw series he’s done in about two years”.
“It was between him and another Australian for second and third,” Mr Rivett said.
“They were swapping all the way through until the other guy threw a big one in the last round.”
For Mr Rivett, who watched from the stands, it was another proud moment in a long line of them.
Andre’s first national team appearance was in 2016, and this was his ninth.
In the world of elite sport, this means Andre is veteran.
But that doesn’t mean he’s ready to retire just yet.
When he’s not traveling the world for sport, Andre spend his days training, hitting the gym, and working at Café 63 in Underwood.
With the Australian athletics season just beginning, he’ll compete again before Christmas as he gears up for nationals — and for the world championships in Bulgaria next June.
“He’s very hyped up at the moment, all he wants to talk about is getting ready for Bulgaria,” Mr Rivett said.
“We’ll see how his body holds up, but for now, he’s loving it.”
