 2000 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Elgin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Donald James William Elgin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 19 December 1975 Donald, Victoria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 178 cm (70 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 80 kg (180 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Sandringham | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Donald James William Elgin [1] (born 19 December 1975) is an Australian Paralympic amputee track and field athlete who won four medals at three Paralympics.
Elgin was born on 19 December 1975 in the Victorian town of Donald. [1] [2] He was born without a left leg and a left thumb, with small toes, and webbed fingers on both hands; his malformed left foot was amputated shortly after he was born and he had open heart surgery at the age of three. [3] [4] He was raised in the New South Wales town of Tocumwal, [1] and competed in athletics and swimming as a teenager. [2] He lives in Melbourne with his wife, three daughters and a son. [1] [2] He is the Founder and managing director of StarAmp Global, a boutique management company that specialises in managing and supporting paralympic competitors. [5] [6] He also works as a motivational speaker both in Australia and around the world. [7]
It started off in 1990. I went along to the NSW [New South Wales] amputee championships. It was the first time I had been exposed to a group of people who were missing bits. Missing arms, missing legs. My first reaction was Wow! Have a look at this, it's like freak show, all these people! Then about half an hour into it, it dawned on me that these people were just like me. Here was this level playing field I suppose I wanted and desired so much.
Don Elgin [4]
Elgin first participated in sports for people with disabilities at the 1990 New South Wales Amputee Championships. [4] His first international competition was the 1994 IPC Athletics World Championships in Berlin, where he won a gold medal in the 4x100 m relay and a bronze medal in the high jump. [2] He participated without winning any medals at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics [8] and came fourth in the pentathlon at the 1998 IPC Athletics World Championships in Birmingham. [2] At the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, he won a bronze medal in the Men's Pentathlon P44 event. [8] At the 2002 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lille, he won two silver medals in the pentathlon and 4x400 m relay and a bronze medal in the 4x100 m relay. [2] At the 2004 Athens Paralympics, he won a silver medal in the Men's 4x400 m T42–46 event and two bronze medals in the Men's 4x100 m T42–46 and Men's Pentathlon P44 events. [8] He came sixth in the pentathlon at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships, where he was the Australian flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, [9] and commentated at that year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. [2] [10] He retired from para-athletics in 2008, but made a comeback in 2013 after learning that the sport would be included in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. He came eighth in the Men's Discus Throw F42/44 at the games. [9]
He was coached by Roy Boyd, Cath Woodruff, John Eden, De Jennings, and Peter Negropontis. He held a scholarship from the Victorian Institute of Sport for 12 years. [1] He is the team manager for the Australian Paralympic Athletics Team. [1]
In 2000, Elgin received an Australian Sports Medal for "service to amputee sport", in particular "development of junior athletes and track and field". [11] In November 2018, he was awarded the Victorian Institute of Sport Frank Pyke Achievement Award.
Wojtek Czyz is a German Paralympic track and field athlete from Polish part of Silesia.
Neil Robert Fuller, OAM is an Australian athlete, Paralympic competitor, and amputee.
Stephen Raymond Wilson, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete.
John McFall is a British Paralympic sprinter and ESA Project astronaut. In November 2022, he was selected by the European Space Agency to become the first "parastronaut". ESA will do a feasibility study on him flying to space and what needs to be adapted for people with disabilities.
Evan George O'Hanlon, is an Australian Paralympic athlete, who competes mainly in category T38 sprint events. He has won five gold medals at two Paralympic Games – 2008 Beijing and 2012 London. He also represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a silver medal and a bronze medal respectively. In winning the bronze medal in the Men's 100m T38 at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai, O'Hanlon became Australia's most successful male athlete with a disability. His bronze medal took him to 12 medals in five world championships – one more than four-time Paralympian Neil Fuller.
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.
Aaron Chatman is an Australian right arm amputee Paralympic athlete competing in class T47 men's high jump, long jump and 100 m. He has won silver and bronze medals at the Summer Paralympics.
Casey Tibbs is a Paralympian athlete from America competing mainly in category P44 pentathlon events.
Thomas Bourgeois is a Paralympic athlete from America competing mainly in category P44 pentathlon events.
Bradley James Thomas, OAM, was an Australian Paralympic Athlete who competed in three Paralympic competitions between 1988 and 1996 in an athletic career that spanned 15 years. Thomas was born in Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania. Whilst competing at these Paralympic Games, Thomas received 4 Paralympic medals. He was in the T44 (classification) and F44 (classification) for his disability and competed in many events. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 and also was inducted into the Tasmanian Hall of Fame in 2006. Thomas is currently working in Sydney as CEO of Prophecy International as well CEO of two wholly owned subsidiaries of Prophecy international, eMite and Snare Solutions.
John Desmond Eden is a leg-amputee athlete and Australian and New Zealand Paralympian.
Darren Brian Thrupp, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete competing mainly in category T37 sprint events. He has won nine medals at six Paralympics.
Kieran John Ault-Connell, is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He was born in Melbourne, and has cerebral palsy. He took up athletics after watching the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. At the 1998 IPC Athletics World Championships, he won two bronze medals in javelin and long jump. He won two gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Games in the men's 4x100 m relay T38 and the 4x400 m relay T38 events, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. In the process, he set two world records. At the 2004 Athens Games, he won a silver medal in the Men's Javelin F37 event.
Fabian John Blattman, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He became disabled after a motorbike accident. He started playing disabled bowls, before switching to athletics. As a Paralympic athletics competitor, he has set several world records and won two Paralympic gold medals.
Timothy "Tim" Shaun Matthews, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He was born in the Victorian town of Orbost with exomphalos, a condition in which the abdomen develops outside the body; in his case, the condition affected other organs, including his liver. he was also born without a left arm and with some webbed fingers. He spent much of his early life at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital because the membrane protecting his exposed organs ruptured when he was two days old.
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.
David Martin Evans, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He is an arm amputee, and his nickname was 'Clock'.
Scott Peter Reardon, is an Australian Paralympic leg amputee sprinter and water skier. He won water skiing world championships in 2007 and 2009. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics, winning a silver medal in the Men's 100 m T42. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he went one placing better to win the gold medal. Reardon has won the Men's 100 m T42 in three consecutive World Para Athletics Championships, from 2013 to 2017. He competed at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his third games.
Arnu Fourie is a South African Paralympian athlete who runs in the T44 class. His is a single-below-the-knee amputee.
Felix Streng is a German Paralympic track and field athlete. A single leg amputee, Streng competes in both sprint and long jump events, competing in the T44 classification. He has won medals at both European and World Championship level and was part of the German Athletics at the 2016 Summer Paralympics – Men's 4 × 100 metres relay team that won gold at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
