Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Benjamin Robert Lucas | ||||||||||||||
Born | 1965 (age 58–59) | ||||||||||||||
Years active | 1990–2000 | ||||||||||||||
Employer | Accident Compensation Corporation | ||||||||||||||
Relative | Conrad Robertson (brother-in-law) | ||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||
Country | New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
Sport | Wheelchair racing | ||||||||||||||
Disability | paralysed | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Benjamin Robert Lucas (born 1965) is a New Zealand sports administrator and retired wheelchair racer. He has represented his country at the 1994 Commonwealth Games, and the 1996 and 2000 Summer Paralympics. He was chef de mission for the New Zealand 2016 Summer Paralympics team.
Lucas grew up in Blenheim, New Zealand. He was very active as a teenager and pursued many outdoor activities. [1] In 1989 aged 24, he crashed his motorbike into a u-turning van [2] and broke his L3 lumbar vertebrae which left him paralysed. [3] At the time, he had been studying towards a New Zealand Certificate in Science. [2] His first wheelchair race was the 1990 Blenheim-Woodbourne half-marathon. [2] In 1991, he competed at a race in Japan. He represented New Zealand at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in 800 m and the wheelchair marathon and won a bronze medal in the latter event. [3] [4] He represented New Zealand at the Summer Paralympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, and in 2000 in Sydney. At both Paralympic Games, he was the team captain and the flagbearer. [3] In Atlanta, he reached the semi-finals in the 5,000 m and 10,000 m races, and came in place eight in the wheelchair marathon. [2] At the 1999 World Wheelchair Games in Christchurch, he won a gold medal in wheelchair marathon. [1] He retired from competitive racing after the 2000 Sydney Games. [2]
Lucas worked for Sports Marlborough where he organised the recreation programme for CCS (the Crippled Children Society). In 1997, he moved from Blenheim to Christchurch and took on a role with Parafed Canterbury prior to the 2000 Sydney Games. He became a trustee of the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation in 2001 and from 2008 to 2012, he was on the board of Paralympics New Zealand. [2] For four years, Lucas was the chief executive of the New Zealand Spinal Trust. [5] It was announced in September 2013 that Lucas would succeed Duane Kale as chef de mission for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. [6]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. 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, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
Australia was the host nation for the 2000 Summer Paralympics which was held in Sydney. Australia competed in the games between 18 and 29 October. The team consisted of 285 athletes in 18 sports with 148 officials. It was the country's largest ever Paralympic delegation to a Games. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games since its inception. Australia finished at the top of the medal tally with 63 gold, 39 silver and 47 bronze medals to total 149 medals for the games. This was the first time and the only time to date that Australia has finished on top of either an Olympic or Paralympic medal tally.
The 1996 Summer Paralympics were held in the United States city of Atlanta. Australia competed in 13 of the 17 sports, winning medals in 10 of those sports. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, Australia had the second highest medal tally of any country competing. It won 42 gold, 37 silver and 27 bronze medals. It surpassed the 24 gold medals that Australia won at the 1992 Paralympics. The sports of athletics, swimming and cycling provided Australia with the majority of its medals.
Australia competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. It was Australia's 12th year of participation at the Paralympics. The team included 151 athletes. Australian competitors won 101 medals to finish fifth in the gold medal table and second on the total medal table. Australia competed in 12 sports and won medals in 8 sports. The Chef de Mission was Paul Bird. The Australian team was smaller than the Sydney Games due to a strict selection policy related to the athletes' potential to win a medal and the International Paralympic Committee's decision to remove events for athletes with an intellectual disability from the Games due to issues of cheating at the Sydney Games. This was due to a cheating scandal with the Spanish intellectually disabled basketball team in the 2000 Summer Paralympics where it was later discovered that only two players actually had intellectual disabilities. The IPC decision resulted in leading Australian athletes such as Siobhan Paton and Lisa Llorens not being able to defend their Paralympic titles. The 2000 summer paralympic games hosted in Sydney Australia proved to be a milestone for the Australian team as they finished first on the medal tally for the first time in history. In comparing Australia's 2000 Paralympic performance and their 2004 performance, it is suggested that having a home advantage might affect performance.
Wheelchair rugby is a sport with national representation at the Paralympic games. The Australian Team is known as the 'Steelers'.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, winning two gold medals, three silver and a bronze. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
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.
Gregory Stephen 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.
Brad Dubberley is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair rugby Head Coach and former athlete. He won a silver medal as an athlete at the 2000 Sydney Games and was the head coach at the 2008 Beijing Games in the mixed wheelchair rugby event. He is the head coach of the Australian Wheelchair Rugby team known as the Australian Steelers.
Paul Wiggins is an Australian wheelchair racer.
Jake Lappin is an Australian para-athlete competing as a wheelchair racer. He represented Australia at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
David Findlay Currie is a New Zealand sports administrator who has been the chef de mission at many international sports events. In the 2009 New Year Honours, Currie was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to sports administration.
Australia competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. Australia repeated its 2012 Summer Paralympics achievement in finishing fifth of the medal tally.
New Zealand competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. It was the nation's thirteenth appearance at the Summer Paralympics, having made its debut in 1968 and appeared in every edition since.
Samuel Harrison Carter is a Paralympic athlete, who competes in 100m, 200m, 400m T54 events. He has represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Antony "Tony" John Sainsbury OBE has been the chef de mission of the British Paralympic team at five Paralympic Games, and was the chef de mission of the Independent Paralympic Athletes Team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Jake Howe is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He has represented the Steelers at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Susannah Scaroni is an American Paralympic athlete. She won the gold medal in the women's 5000 meters T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan. She also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.