Thursday's announcement by the Prime Minister that Australia's Paralympic medal winners will receive the same financial rewards as Olympic medallists is a shot in the arm for disabled sport.
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It redresses a long standing imbalance that has inadvertently reinforced the views of some that the efforts of Paralympians are less worthy than those of their able-bodied counterparts.
If anything the reverse is the case. The 2020 Tokyo Paralympics have bought together thousands of sportspeople with amazing, and sometimes heartrending, personal stories from across the globe.
Some have faced even greater challenges than their individual disabilities.
One of the most remarkable journeys was that of Afghanistan's Zakia Khudadadi and Hossain Rasouli. They finally made it to Tokyo on August 28 after their country had fallen to the Taliban. Khudadadi, who competes in taekwondo, is Afghanistan's first female Paralympian since 2004.
Members of the Australian team have also overcome great adversity to bring their very best selves to a competition notable for many firsts; including being held a year late.
Take Darren Hicks. A talented BMX rider, he competed in that sport from the age of 10 to 29. Then, in August 2014, he lost his right leg in a truck crash on Adelaide's South Eastern Freeway.
The brakes on the truck he was driving failed and the vehicle collided with three cars. Two people were killed. Another was badly injured. Hicks's leg had to be amputated above the knee at the scene.
Within three months he was back on a bike, this time with a prosthetic leg.
He has already achieved his ambition of winning a gold medal in Tokyo this year as well as landing a silver medal.
The gold was for the Men's Road Time Trial C2 and the silver was for the Men's 3km Pursuit C2.
This represents a significant contribution to what has been an epic effort by our Paralympians over the last two weeks. As of Friday afternoon Australia was eighth in the overall medal tally with 70 and eighth in the gold medal tally with 18. The team has also collected 25 silver and 27 bronze.
While it is impossible to make a direct comparison with the Olympics given the difference in the numbers and types of events and the sizes of the team, it is worth noting that our Olympic contingent came home with 17 gold medals, seven silver, and 22 bronze, making a total of 46.
While Thursday's announcement, which will see medallists paid $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for gold, is not going to come cheap, few would argue that it is not money well spent.
Paralympians, who apparently lack the cachet of able bodied athletes in the eyes of some potential sponsors, often struggle to obtain financial support.
An extreme example of this was a reply to a request for assistance by two-time Paralympic gold medallist Jodi Willis-Roberts from a company in her hometown of Ballarat. "[They] said if they were to sponsor me then the general public might think that their product was disabled or defective in some way," she said.
The Prime Minister's decision to provide Paralympic medallists with the same incentives as Olympic medallists is welcome recognition that such views are not representative.
Our Paralympians have delivered inspirational and courageous performances during what is a very dark time for many Australians. It is excellent to see these efforts being acknowledged.
