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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 June 1962 Koonya, Tasmania | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Paul Wiggins (born 7 June 1962) [1] is an Australian wheelchair racer.
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 7 June 1962 Koonya, Tasmania | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Paul Wiggins (born 7 June 1962) [1] is an Australian wheelchair racer.
Wiggins was born in the Tasmanian town of Koonya, on the Tasman Peninsula. [1] He took up sport during rehabilitation after receiving a broken back due to a collision between his motorcycle and a car in 1985. [2] He began wheelchair racing in 1988. [3]
He competed but did not win any medals at the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. [4] At the 1994 Commonwealth Games, he won a gold medal in the Men's Wheelchair Marathon and a bronze medal in the Men's Wheelchair 800 m event;. [5] At the 1994 Los Angeles Marathon, Wiggins and fellow French wheelchair racer Philippe Couprie made a pact that they would finish together, thus causing the first dead heat in the history of the competition. [3] He also won that competition in 1995. [6] He was the first person to break the 20-minute mark in the 10 km wheelchair race. [2]
In 1996 Wiggins was selected to compete in the Wheelchair 1500 m Men's Wheelchair event at the Summer Olympics. He finished 7th overall with a time of 3:16.86. [7]
Wiggins retired from competitive sport in 1998 due to neck problems. Before his retirement, he was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. [2] A fitter and turner by trade, Wiggins was appointed by the Australian Sports Commission to the role of Wheelchair technician at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. His expertise in this area also saw him spend 3 months in the US in 1997 helping Cannondale design and build racing wheelchairs. [2]
Wiggins' achievements have been a source of inspiration for many athletes with disabilities including Kurt Fearnley who credits Wiggins as one of the legends of the sport. [8] Wiggins with Jeff Wiseman was responsible for establishing the Oz Day 10K Wheelchair Road Race in 1990. [9]
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.
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Disability sport in Australia encompasses individuals with different disabilities, of all ages and skill levels from recreational to professional, participating in sport in Australia. The apex of disability sport in Australia is the Paralympics. Australia's participation at the Paralympics began with the inaugural 1960 Summer Paralympics and 1976 Winter Paralympics. Australia hosted the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney.
Oz Day 10K Wheelchair Road Race is held on Australia Day in The Rocks, Sydney and is marquee event on the international wheelchair racing calendar, attracting prominent international and Australian athletes.
Jeff Wiseman is an Australian Paralympic athlete who has competed at two Paralympics and is a wheelchair mechanic. He has played a significant role in the development of wheelchair sport in New South Wales.
Ann Cody is a three-time U.S. Paralympian who works at the United States Department of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor on the advancement of international disability rights. After debuting at the 1984 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, Cody won four silver medals in athletics at the 1988 Summer Paralympics. Cody also competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in wheelchair racing. At her third Paralympics, Cody helped set a world record in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1992 Summer Paralympics while winning one gold and one bronze medal.
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