From Jindalee to the Commonwealth Games platform, Hani Watson’s Para Powerlifting journey has been shaped by resilience, family influence and a steady rise through international competition, with the Queensland athlete now preparing for Glasgow 2026 after a breakthrough bronze in Birmingham and a Paralympic campaign in Paris.
From Jindalee To The Commonwealth Stage
Hani Watson’s return to the Commonwealth Games carries a familiar local thread for Jindalee, where her rise in Para Powerlifting has been part of a wider story of persistence, strength and international ambition.
The Queensland athlete has been named in Australia’s six-member Para Powerlifting team for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, where she will compete in the women’s heavyweight event. Her selection marks another major step in a sporting path that moved from early national promise to a Commonwealth Games medal and Paralympic competition.
Watson became one of Australia’s leading names in the sport at Birmingham 2022, where she won bronze in the women’s heavyweight event with a best lift of 127 kilograms. The result ended Australia’s 16-year medal drought in Commonwealth Games Para Powerlifting and remains listed as the highlight of her sporting career.
For Jindalee, the latest selection adds another chapter to a local sporting connection that first drew attention when Watson was preparing to represent Australia at Birmingham. She now heads towards Glasgow as part of the largest Para Powerlifting contingent Australia has sent to a Commonwealth Games.
A Sporting Path Built On Upper-Body Strength
Watson’s connection to strength training began long before she entered Para Powerlifting competition. Her father, Charlie, was a bodybuilder, and she spent time in the gym growing up, joining him in exercises such as curls and bench presses.
She was born with bilateral metaphyseal dysplasia, which bowed her tibia and femur bones and led to several surgeries. The condition affected her ability to continue some forms of lifting, but upper-body strength became a central part of her sporting direction.
That pathway eventually led her towards Para Powerlifting. Watson began competing in the sport in 2018, was classified in 2019 and made her Australian debut in 2021.
At the World Para-Powerlifting Championships in Georgia in 2021, she lifted 120 kilograms in the +86kg class, broke an Oceania record and finished eighth overall. At that stage, she had been competing for less than a year, making the result an early sign of her potential at international level.
Birmingham Bronze Becomes A Defining Moment
Watson’s rise continued in 2022 when she won gold at the Para-Powerlifting Brisbane Classic, a result that helped open the door to her Commonwealth Games selection.
At Birmingham 2022, she delivered the performance that became the defining moment of her career so far. Her bronze medal in the women’s heavyweight event ended a long wait for Australia in Commonwealth Games Para Powerlifting, with the country’s previous medal in the sport coming in 2006 through Darren Gardiner in Melbourne.
The Birmingham result also confirmed Watson’s place among Australia’s key Para Powerlifting competitors, giving her a major international medal less than two years after her Australian debut.
Paris Experience And A Bigger Lift
Watson later competed at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, finishing sixth in the women’s +86kg class with a lift of 133 kilograms.
Her progress continued at the Para-Powerlifting National Championships at RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast on 6 July 2025. There, she completed lifts of 135 kilograms, 140 kilograms and 145 kilograms, with her final lift surpassing her previous personal record of 138 kilograms.
The 145-kilogram lift marked another significant performance before the World Championships in Cairo in October and gave Watson another major result before her next Commonwealth Games campaign.
Glasgow 2026 Opens The Next Chapter
The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games will run from 23 July to 2 August, with Para Powerlifting events to be held at the Scottish Event Campus, including The Hydro. The sport will open the Games’ medal programme on Friday, 24 July.
Watson will be joined in Australia’s Para Powerlifting team by Benjamin Wright, Cameron Whittington, Daniel Bos, Natasha Price and Jade Pritchard. The squad brings together returning medallists, experienced competitors and debut athletes.
For Watson, Glasgow 2026 is not just another event on the calendar. It is the next stage of a career that has moved from Jindalee’s local sporting interest to international platforms, national records, a Commonwealth Games bronze medal and the Paralympic Games.
Her story now continues with another chance to represent Australia, carrying both the experience of Birmingham and Paris and the local connection that helped frame the beginning of her Commonwealth Games journey.
Published 14-May-2026
