Russell won four gold medals, a silver and a bronze in athletics and archery at the 1979 Stoke Mandeville Paraplegic World Games, her first international competitive event. At the 1980 Arnhem Games, she won a silver medal in the Women's Pentathlon 3 event. At the &lt;a href="1984%20Summer%20Paralympics"&gt;1984 New York/Stoke-Mandeville Games&lt;/a&gt;, she won a silver medal in the Women's Marathon 3 event and a bronze medal in the Women's Pentathlon 3 event. She won three silver medals at the 1988 Seoul Games, in the Women's 4 × 400 m Relay 2-6, Women's Pentathlon 3 and Women's Shot Put 3 events, and two bronze medals in the Women's Discus 3 and Women's Javelin 3 events. She was a member of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team in the 1992 Barcelona Games. She was selected to compete in basketball at the 1992 Games not purely for her skills in basketball but also as an experienced athlete who could act as a role model and a calming influence on the younger athletes of the team.