Chapter Milestones: Melbourne

In 1976, Achilles International’s late founder Dick Traum made history as the first person with a prosthetic leg to complete the New York City Marathon, helping spark a movement that continues to redefine what’s possible for athletes with disabilities around the world.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of that historic finish, we’re celebrating the people, moments and milestones that have shaped Achilles along the way. Today, that movement spans 62 chapters worldwide, each with its own story to tell.

As Achilles Melbourne celebrates its 10th anniversary, we're looking back at the people, moments and milestones that have transformed a group of 14 founding members into a community of hundreds.

Achilles Melbourne

Our story began on March 6, 2016, when 14 people gathered at Vision Australia in Kooyong for the very first Achilles Melbourne training session.

Among them were founding members Adam Koops, Francois Jacobs, Simon Watharow, Kevin Murfitt, Amir and Amanda Kwong, who would go on to establish and lead the club for years.

Within weeks, we had already outgrown our original meeting place. We moved to the Janet Lady Clarke Rotunda at the Tan, a location suggested by guide Julie Clifton, who remains a beloved member of our volunteer community today.

From those first 14 people, something extraordinary began to grow.

Just one week after our first training session, Achilles Melbourne participated in Run for the Kids, an event that has remained a cornerstone of our calendar ever since. Over the years, the sight of Achilles yellow making its way through Melbourne has become a familiar one.

Soon, that yellow started appearing far beyond our home city.

In 2017, Adam Koops and Francois Jacobs became the first Achilles Melbourne athletes to take on the TCS New York City Marathon. Since then, our members have competed at all six World Marathon Majors, along with races throughout Australia and around the world.

Those races have given our athletes opportunities to challenge themselves, but some of the moments that best define Achilles Melbourne have happened much closer to home.

Run Melbourne has become an annual gathering for our community. In 2023, we welcomed Achilles chapters from across Australia, bringing together around 100 athletes and guides in one of the largest gatherings of Achilles members on Australian soil.

The Melbourne Marathon Festival has given us countless finish-line memories of our own. In 2025, Peter S completed his 10th Melbourne Marathon, becoming a Melbourne Marathon Spartan and celebrating a remarkable milestone alongside the entire club.

But Achilles Melbourne has never been just a running club.

Over the past decade, we've hiked through some of Victoria's most spectacular landscapes, participated in hundreds of parkruns, traveled together and created new ways for our members to stay active.

In late 2018, four University of Melbourne Physiotherapy students approached us with an idea for a dedicated strength and conditioning program.

What began as a university project became Wednesday Strength, one of the most consistent fixtures in our calendar. Led by volunteer coaches Deborah Christie and Karen Buckley, the program has continued every week for nearly seven years through sunshine, rain, lockdowns and everything in between.

That ability to adapt became especially important in March 2020.

When Melbourne entered lockdown and we could no longer gather in person, we refused to let our community disappear with our workouts.

Sunday training moved online. Wednesday Strength went virtual. We created weekly challenges, including a 24-hour Move-a-Thon, collective kilometer challenges, virtual partner workouts and even a sock selfie competition. We kept moving, but more importantly, we stayed connected. That sense of connection has taken us far beyond Melbourne, too.

Our first interstate trip came in 2017, when we traveled to the Sydney Running Festival and joined Achilles Sydney and Achilles Canberra. In 2019, 42 members traveled together to the Great Ocean Road Running Festival. In 2022, we headed to the Gold Coast Marathon, and in 2025, we joined the newly established Achilles Adelaide for another weekend of racing, personal bests and plenty of Achilles yellow.

Along the way, our chapter has also been recognized for its impact throughout Victoria.

Just nine months after our founding, Achilles Melbourne received both Initiative of the Year and Volunteer of the Year at the 2016 Victorian Disability Sport and Recreation Awards. The following year, we received the Outdoor/Active Recreation Initiative of the Year award at the Victorian Sport Awards.

In 2024, Vice President Maddy Seiter was recognized with both Volunteer of the Year and Team Member of the Year honors, while our collaboration with Trail Bus on the Achilles hiking program received Active Recreation Initiative of the Year.

But no award, marathon or milestone tells the full story of Achilles Melbourne. At its heart, our chapter has always been about people.

It's about every athlete who has challenged what they thought was possible, every guide who has shown up beside them, every volunteer who has given their time and every person who has come to a workout, race or even just joined us for coffee.

We were reminded of the depth of those relationships in 2023 when Kevin Murfitt, one of our founding members and a longtime advocate for disability inclusion, passed away. Today, our annual end-of-year race bears his name: the Kevin Murfitt Memorial Tan Handicap. His legacy, like so many others, remains part of the community we've built.

On May 30, 2026, Achilles Melbourne came together to celebrate 10 years. In that decade, we've grown from 14 members to hundreds. We've competed around the world. We've run marathons, climbed mountains, explored trails and found ways to keep moving even when we couldn't physically be together.

But the greatest milestone isn't how far we've traveled or how many finish lines we've crossed. It's that, 10 years after 14 people showed up for that first workout, people are still showing up for one another.

That's the story of Achilles Melbourne. Here's to the next 10 years!