 Tony South pushed 50km on his back wheels in 1975 to raise funds for the Australian Paraplegic Games. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Anthony Eric South | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 1944 (age 78–79) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Anthony Eric "Tony" South OAM AM [1] is an Australian Paralympic archer who won a gold medal and two silver medals at the 1968 Summer Paralympics and a bronze medal at the 1972 Summer Paralympics.
South was born in 1944. He became a wheelchair-using paraplegic after a gunshot wound at the age of ten. [2] His mother was advised to admit him to a nursing home, but South decided to be strong in the face of adversity. [3]
After the accident, South's rehabilitation program was prepared by Mrs Kingston, Chief Physiotherapist at Northcott, Parramatta, New South Wales and included the sport of archery which was the first sport introduced to paraplegics by Ludwig Guttmann. [4] Archery helped the development of muscles in South's back. [5]
High school education studies prevented South from competing at the 1960 Summer Paralympics and the 1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. He passed his Intermediate Certificate and was the first student in a wheelchair in New South Wales to attend a public high school. He was the first student from Northcott to obtain the Leaving Certificate and achieved an Honours Grade in Economics and Commonwealth University Scholarship. His tertiary studies were completed at the Marconi School of Wireless, and after graduating, he joined IBM Australia where he was employed for 28 years. [6]
At 17 years of age, while competing in his first Australian Paraplegic Championship in Melbourne, Victoria, he won his first gold medal in archery, South's physiotherapy program was extended to 26 hours a week in preparation for the 1968 Tel Aviv Paralympics, his first international games competition. He achieved world championship status in the sport of archery by winning one gold and two silver medals 1968 Tel Aviv Games. [2] During the five-day Games, that required being on the field for 45 hours, he won one gold medal in the Men's Albion Round Open Archery event with the World Paraplegic Record score of 800, a shoot of 80, 60 and 50 metes, one of three events that involved shooting 1000 arrows,. [2] He won two silver medals in the Men's FITA Round Open Archery and in Dartchery Mixed Pairs open event with Australian archer Alan Conn. He also competed in table tennis events. [7]
At the 1970 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, Edinburgh, Scotland, he won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal in archery and wheelchair slalom. [2]
At the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, he won a bronze medal in the Men's FITA Round Team open and finished fifteenth in the Men's FITA Round open . [7]
In 1974, South moved to Queensland and became President of Queensland Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Sports Committee, [6] where he raised $14,000.00 towards the cost of hosting the 4th National Paraplegic Games, Brisbane, Queensland by pushing 50 kilometres on the back wheels of his chair [8]
South noted that Australian athletes had to train individually with strong competition held only every 2 years - Australian Championships, the biggest drawback, having to raise their own finances which caused much loss of training. [2] Observing that there was little support for people with spinal injuries, South joined the Paraplegic Benefit Fund Australia (PBF), founded by Sir George Bedbrook in 1984. [9]
During an interview with Richard Fidler, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, South informed listeners that PBF was there to help physically, and after that, hopefully motivationally. [10] South was invited to speak to staff and guests of the Marketing Department, Trilby Misso Lawyers at their Inspirational Speakers Series 2009, the 100 attendees were very impressed with his credentials. [11]
During a visit to Townsville in Northern Queensland, South discussed the cause and effect of preventable accidents that result in spinal cord injury with nine Rotary clubs, three local government councils, and attended meetings with twelve other prominent community leaders. Northern Queensland has the highest per capita rate of spinal injury. [12]
South, PBF's Corporate Relations Officer in 2006, attended the Queensland Invitational Wheelchair Rugby Championships and presented the award of 'most valuable player' (to outstanding individuals only) to Australian Wheelchair Rugby player Ryley Batt. [13]
In 2014, South, together with other PBF team members, introduced State and Federal Politicians to the mission of the PBF and familiarized them with the work of the organization. Later, he met with members from 1995 and explained how helpful the PBF's $100,000 Spinal Cord Injury Member Benefit was to each member. [14]
WheelPower is the national organisation for wheelchair sports in the United Kingdom, and aims to help people with disabilities improve their quality of life.
Margaret Maughan was a British competitive archer, dartcher and bowls competitor. She was Britain's first gold medallist at the Paralympic Games, and won four gold and two silver medals at the Games. She lit the cauldron at the Olympic Stadium in London at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Australia competed at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Games significantly expanded in 1968 when compared to previous years, as did the Australian team and the events included in the Games. Mexico City were originally to host the 1968 Paralympics, however, they were moved to Tel Aviv in Israel.
Sweden was one of twenty-eight nations that sent a delegation to the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, Israel from November 4 to 13, 1968. The team finished seventeenth in the medal table and won eleven medals: one gold, six silver and four bronze. Thirty-two Swedish athletes took part in the Games; twenty-seven men and five women.
Australia sent a team to compete at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, West Germany. Australian won 25 medals - 6 gold, 9 silver, and 10 bronze medals in six sports. Australia finished 11th on the gold medal table and 9th on the total medal table.
Great Britain sent a delegation to compete at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, West Germany. Teams from the nation are referred to by International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as Great Britain despite athletes from the whole of the United Kingdom, including those from Northern Ireland, being eligible. They sent seventy two competitors, forty seven male and twenty five female. The team won fifty-two medals—sixteen gold, fifteen silver and twenty-one bronze—to finish third in the medal table behind West Germany and the United States. Philip Craven, the former President of the IPC, competed in athletics, swimming and wheelchair basketball for Great Britain at these Games.
Australia has participated in every Summer Paralympic Games since the inception of the Paralympics in the year 1960. The 1976 Paralympic Games in Toronto was Australia's fifth Paralympic Games. Australia competed in 10 out of the 13 sports and were able to win medals in six of these sports. There were 44 athletes representing Australia at the Games with a number of these athletes participating in multiple sports. Of the 44 athletes, 34 were males and 10 were females. As a team, Australia won 41 medals, 16 of which were gold. This placed it just outside the top 10 in 11th position at the end of the Games. The Australian team won more gold medals at the 1976 Paralympic Games than at any of the previous four Paralympic Games. 26 athletes finished on the podium in their respective events. This represents more than half the number of athletes that Australia sent to Toronto. Six world records were broken by Australian athletes on their way to winning their respective events.
Sir George Montario Bedbrook, OBE was an Australian medical doctor and surgeon, who was the driving force in creating the Australian Paralympic movement and the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, and helped to found the FESPIC Games.
Ross Edward Sutton was the first Australian Paralympic gold medallist. He represented Australia in archery at the 1960 Summer Paralympics in Rome, Italy and dartchery and fencing at the 1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Perth, Western Australia. Sutton also competed in table tennis at the Second National Paraplegic Games.
Roy Fowler was an Australian Paralympic competitor, who won ten medals at six Paralympics from 1964 to 1988.
Lorraine McCoulough-Fry was an Australian Paralympic swimmer, athlete and table tennis player.
Eric Cyril Russell, MBE is an Australian Paralympic athlete, coach, and administrator.
The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were an international, multi-sport event involving athletes with a disability from the Commonwealth countries. The event was sometimes referred to as the Paraplegic Empire Games and British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. Athletes were generally those with spinal injuries or polio. The Games were an important milestone in the Paralympic sports movement as they began the decline of the Stoke Mandeville Games' dominating influence. The event was first held in 1962 and disestablished in 1974. The Games were held in the country hosting the Commonwealth Games for able-bodied athletes, a tradition eventually fully adopted by the larger Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Kevin Francis Betts, OAM was a sports administrator known for his work in the Paralympic movement in Australia and his founding work related to wheelchair sports in New South Wales.
Jeff Simmonds is a former swimmer and athlete who participated at the 1968 Tel Aviv Paralympics, winning a silver medal. Before being a Paralympian, he was a notable rugby league half back with North Sydney Leagues Club. His rugby league career ended after a series of concussions and a serious fall.
Bruce Oliver Thwaite was an Australian Paralympic competitor. During World War II, he sustained a spinal injury when he landed on a tree after parachuting from a bomber plane over Germany. He was treated at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
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Raymond Barrett was an Indigenous Australian Paralympic athlete left a paraplegic following a car accident. Prior to this he was a champion juvenile athlete in able-bodied sports. A bronze medalist at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Heidelberg Germany, a high achiever at the Stoke Mandeville Games England, Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, National Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, FESPIC Games and State selection trials. A sporting complex in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney is named in his honor. The people of this Shire were his 'significant others'.
In September 1943, the British government asked neurologist Ludwig Guttmann to establish the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. When the centre opened in 1944, Guttmann was appointed its director and held the position until 1966. Sport was introduced as part of the total rehabilitation programme for patients at the centre, starting with darts, snooker, punchball, and skittles, followed by archery.
Kevin Wayne Bawden AM is an Australian Paralympics competitor in six sports and a leading disability sports administrator in Australia.
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