Australian Sports Commission Media Awards Nominates Stathi Paxinos

The Age journalist has been nominated under the Award's mission, that recognizes a "lifetime achievement...to sports journalist over an extended period of time". The Awards ceremony will be held on November 19th.

Paxinos spoke to Neos Kosmos on his accomplishments, "It came down to an opportunity to cover the London Paralympics. When I was there it struck me how interesting the stories of these athletes were and how willing they were to talk about themselves and their experiences. I found that such a big change to my usual rounds of professional sports, like rugby league or rugby union where everything is so media controlled and structured."

The Greek-Australian correspondent described how the para-sports sector is evolving, "What they (para-athletes) try to push nowadays is that they are athletes themselves and that their athletic performances should stand by their own right. They're trying to really generate more interest in the sporting situations rather than just human interest."

Paxinos discussed how the human interest element is still beneficial for athletes, "The stories behind them are really quite inspiring to a lot of people. Some of these athletes, have often been bullied through high school or their younger years and if young children with disabilities have someone to look up to, who they can relate to, who may have gone through something similar, it gives them something to aspire to."

The Greek-Australian journalist explained his happiness at the nomination, "is really pleasing because it's good to see that para-sports is being acknowledged in major awards now."