| Men's marathon T52-53 at the X Paralympic Games | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Paralympic Athletics | |||||||||||||
| Competitors | 63 from 30 nations | ||||||||||||
| Medalists | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
The Men's marathon T52-53 was a marathon event in athletics at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, for wheelchair athletes. Franz Nietlispach and Heinz Frei finished in gold and bronze medal positions respectively for Switzerland, ensuring that Nietlispach won his first marathon title and also setting a Personal Record. Of the sixty-three starters, fifty-six reached the finish line. [1]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and 'crawled' the Kokoda Track. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Games. Fearnley finished his Paralympic Games career with silver and bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Christie Dawes née Skelton is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at six Paralympics from 1996 to 2016.
Franz Nietlispach is a Swiss wheelchair athlete, handcyclist, and a politician.
Joshua George is a Paralympian athlete from the United States competing in category T53 events ranging from sprints to the marathon.
Richard Andrew Colman is an Australian Paralympic athlete, competing mainly in category T53 sprint events. He was born with spina bifida. He represented Australia at the four Paralympics - 2004 to 2016.
Abderrahim Zhiou is a Paralympian athlete from Tunisia competing mainly in category T12 middle distance events. He is a six-time Paralympiclympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the Tunisian Federation of Sports for the Disabled team based at Gabes.
Thomas Geierspichler is a Paralympic wheelchair racer from Austria. He competes in the T52 classification.
Zambia made its Paralympic Games début at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, United States. The country's delegation consisted in a single competitor, wheelchair athlete Lango Sinkamba.
Marathon events have been held at the Summer Paralympic Games, for both men and women, since the 1984 Summer Paralympics in Stoke Mandeville and New York City. They are held as part of the Paralympic athletics programme.
The women's marathon T54 was a marathon event in athletics at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, for wheelchair athletes. It was the only marathon event held for women. Wheelchair athletes with a disability level more severe than T54 were permitted to compete in the T54 marathon. Ten athletes, from seven countries, took part; defending champion Kazu Hatanaka of Japan was not among them.
The 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from January 21 to 30, 2011. Athletes with a disability competed, and the Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
John Lindsay, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete from Melbourne. He competed in the 1988 Seoul games in distances ranging from 100 m to 800 m, but did not win any medals. At the 1992 Barcelona Games, he won a gold medal in the Men's 200 m TW3 event, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia, a silver medal in the Men's 100 m TW3 event and a bronze medal in the Men's 400 m TW3 event. That year, he had a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship. He was also working as a fitness instructor in 1992, held world records in the 100 m and 200 m events, and was ranked 6th in the world in the 400 m. He won a gold medal in the men's athletics 100 m T52 event at the 1996 Summer Paralympics with a time of 15.22, a silver medal in the 200 m T52 event with a time of 27.38, and a bronze medal in the 400 m T52 event with a time of 52.93. At the 2000 Sydney Games, he won a gold medal in the Men's 100 m T53 event, a silver medal as part of the Men's 4x100 m Relay T54 team, and a bronze medal in the Men's 200 m T53 event; he was also part of the Men's 4x400 m Relay T54 team, which was the only one to qualify in its heat, but it did not make it to the finals. At the 2004 Athens Games, he came seventh in the first round of the Men's 100 m T53 event and sixth in the third round of the Men's 200 m T53 event. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder in 1995 and 2000.
Richard Nicholson is an Australian Paralympic powerlifter and athlete. He has competed at five successive Paralympic Games from the 1996 to 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the 2000 Games, he won a silver medal in the powerlifting Men's Up to 60 kg event. In athletics, at the 2004 Athens Paralympics he won a silver medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m T53–54 event and at the 2012 London Paralympics a bronze medal in the Men's 4 × 400 m T53–54 event.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympian athlete from Switzerland competing in category T54 wheelchair racing events. Hug, nicknamed 'The Silver Bullet', has competed in four Summer Paralympic Games for Switzerland, winning two bronze medals in his first Games in Athens in 2004. In 2010 he set four world records in four days, and at the 2011 World Championships he won a gold in the 10,000 metres and four silver medals, losing the gold in three events to long term rival David Weir. This rivalry continued into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where Hug won two silvers, in the 800m and the marathon. In the 2013 World Championships Hug dominated the field, winning five golds and a silver. During the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Hug was one of the most consistent competitors in the T54 class, winning two golds, in the 800 m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 500m.
Gregory Stephen "Greg" Smith, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair rugby player who won three gold medals in athletics at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, and a gold medal in wheelchair rugby at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where he was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony.
Men's marathon races for wheelchair athletes at the 2004 Summer Paralympics followed a course from Marathon to the Panathinaiko Stadium, and started at 08:00 on 26 September. Events were held in three wheelchair disability classes, together with two classes of visually impaired athletes.
The Women's marathon T52-53 was a marathon event in athletics at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, for wheelchair athletes. It was the only women's marathon at this games. The host country, the USA won gold courtesy of Jean Driscoll. Of the eighteen starters, thirteen reached the finish line.
The women's marathon athletics events for the 2016 Summer Paralympics took place in the streets of Rio de Janeiro on the 18 September. A total of two events were contested over this distance for three different disability classifications.
Athletics at the 2020 Summer Paralympics will be held at the Tokyo National Stadium between 25 August and 6 September.
Switzerland will be competing at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 25 August to 6 September 2020.
