Australia’s Paralympics team will leave home as para-athletes but when they touch down in Paris in August they will do so as “superhumans”.

Champion track and field athlete Vanessa Low will be participating at her fourth Paralympics and has seen the quality and competitiveness grow with each staging.

For the German-born long-jumper, who lost both her legs above the knee when she fell from a train platform as a teenager, the opportunity to become an elite athlete has changed the way she sees herself.

“I think London (2012) was a big turning point for the Paralympics where for the first time we weren’t just seen as the Games for people with a disability,” Low said.

After a car accident cruelled a promising rowing career, finding para-sports was “life-changing” for Alexandra Viney.

“I’d been a high-level young person involved in sport, the conversations and the stereotypes and the almost disrespect that was shown to people who had a disability was immense and it broke my soul,” she said.

“For eight years I struggled and since I finally reconnected with para-sport it’s been immense.

“It gave me purpose.”

The Paralympics team is ready to reassert its status as a leading nation at the Paris Games after a quieter, COVID-affected outing in Tokyo.

Australia finished eighth on the medal tally in 2021 after placing in the top five in every Games since Barcelona and Madrid 1992.

The team for Paris is not finalised, but it is estimated that it will number approximately 160 athletes from 16 sports, down from 179 athletes in 18 sports in Tokyo.

“In Paris you’re going to see one of the strongest teams ever to represent this country,” Viney said.

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There’s no doubt preparation has been much smoother than for Tokyo, when quarantine restrictions limited the team’s time together.

Paris represents a golden opportunity to get back on track ahead of the home 2032 Games in Brisbane.

When Sydney hosted the 2000 Games, Australia topped the Paralympics medal tally.