In primary school, his physical education teacher Gary Cole, an Australia international soccer player gave support and enthusiasm.

However, Parker encouraged him to turn to athletics and in his final year at high school, he was selected for the Barcelona Paralympics.

[citation needed] MacDonald was an elite seated shot putter and competed at the Paralympic Games in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

In 1994, he accepted an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Athletes with a Disability residential scholarship in Canberra.

After six months at the Australian Institute of Sport, he was strongly encouraged to switch to throwing events due to rapidly increasing standards in Paralympic sprinting and his powerlifting background.

His functional classification allowed him to throw from a chair and he subsequently[5] won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games in the men's shot put F32–33 event,[6] in a world record.

There was controversy during the men's shot put where MacDonald was forced to change his technique mid-competition due to an official's ignorance of the rules.

It's been great to watch a kid from Alice Springs rise to the heights of international sport and then contribute in such a meaningful way.

He has visited the South Pacific and Caribbean to help create local disabled sport programs.

[2] I grew up with cerebral palsy and didn't have any other reality; I really take off my hat to the Paralympians who have had to overcome tremendous lifestyle change because of often horrendous injury.

[4]MacDonald, alongside Branka Pupovac, Karni Liddell and Charmaine Dalli, was one of eighteen Australian Paralympians photographed by Emma Hack for a nude calendar.