Paralympics organisers announced this week the Tokyo Games would be delayed until August and September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The news comes after Wollongong Roller Hawks captain Stibners, 40, made a dash back with his family to Australia from Spain.

He made the move to Spain last year to prepare to represent the Australian men's wheelchair basketball team at the Paralympics.

Speaking from isolation, Stibners said he was disappointed but understanding of the postponement decision.

"I will now scale training right back and then start to pick training back up at the end of the year," he said.

"We were going to wait out the Coronavirus, hoping it would pass quickly. We had been in lockdown for a week. One night, I got several messages from people back in Australia asking when I'm coming home. I thought that was strange so I looked up the news and saw that it was getting pretty bad back here.

"It was 1.30 in the morning on the Tuesday, but I woke my wife up and said we need to go home. She jumped into action, emailed the travel agent back here and, by Wednesday, we had tickets booked home for Sunday.

"We are happy we left when we did."

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Fellow Roller Hawk Hannah Dodd was preparing to become a dual sport Paralympian in Tokyo. She represented Australia at the 2012 Games in equestrian.

Dodd is staying at home in isolation with her partner and fellow wheelchair basketballer, Steve Elliott.

"Steve and I are both immune compromised so we're having to be super careful," the 27-year-old said.

"Obviously it's very disappointing to have to put everything on hold for another 12 months but there really wasn't any other option given the current state of the world.

"There are bigger things than sport at the moment."

While Dodds and Stibners have already been to the Paralympics, for Roller Hawks teammate Luke Pople, it's the delay of a dream he's been working towards since entering the Australian Rollers program 12 years ago.

After helping Australia qualify at the 2019 Asia Oceania Championships, Tokyo 2020 was set to be his first Paralympic Games.

"I'm obviously very disappointed, but postponed is a whole lot better than cancelled," Pople said.

"I started in the program around 2008 and obviously going to the Paralympics to represent your country is always in your sights."

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