Category: Disability sport
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Reflecting on Greg Hartung’s Induction into the Australian Paralympic Hall of Fame
By Greg Blood Hartung as Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) President led it from a small disability sports organisation with limited funding and resources to a well-resourced national sports organisation that is now an important part of Australian’s integrated high-performance sport system. In 2020, I was fortunate to gain great insights into Hartung’s significant sport administration…
australiansportreflections
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Coaches of Australian 2024 Summer Paralympic Medallists
By Greg Blood This list recognises Australian coaching success at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. It follows the recognition of Australian coaches of 2024 Olympic medallists. After the 2024 Paris Paralympics, several academics in The Conversation raised issues related to the development of coaches of Paralympic athletes. The early development of coaches of athletes with a disability…
australiansportreflections
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Para-Table Tennis in Australia – A Journey from Hospital Wards to High Performance Innovation
By Arthur Wilks and Tony Naar, June 2024 Documents the development of para-table tennis Australia from 1957 Stoke Mandeville Games to 2020 Toyko Paralympics. Lists Australian athletes that have competed in every major international competition. 56 page PDF document (2.7 KB)
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Athlete Entry Fees And The Creation Of The Oceania Paralympic Committee – Two Different But Lasting Dividends Of The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games
By Greg Hartung AO History of Australian Sports Policy Series: Part 27 The purpose of this chapter is to consider two issues which made an important imprint on the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games legacy. The first concerns the vexed question of entry fees applied to teams to enter the Games; the second relates to the…
australiansportreflections
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The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games Was Rocket Fuel For Athletes With A Disability…The Spectacular Success of Sydney Became a Turning Point for the Paralympic Movement
By Greg Hartung AO History of Australian Sport Policy Series: Part 26 Transformation The Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games has been described as the “benchmark” Games for the Paralympic Movement. This is true in many respects, but not all. Coming off a low base from the Atlanta Games four years earlier, the Sydney Games were undoubtedly…
australiansportreflections
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The Fight To Be Heard! How Athletes With A Disability Made Their Way In Australian Sport…defeat was never an option for our pioneers
History of Australian Sport Policy series: Part 25 By Greg Hartung AO Partners in the long campaign The pioneers who advanced the interests of people with disabilities in sport during the 1970s and early 1980s were the members of the government-appointed National Committee on Sport and Recreation for the Disabled (NCSRD) and the non-government Australian…
australiansportreflections
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Support For Athletes With A Disability: From The Ground Up …The Years Of Struggle To Be Taken Seriously
History of Australian Sport Policy Series: Part 24 By Greg Hartung AO Only one way to go Assistance for athletes with a disability has regularly featured in reports and government policy discussions. Whether this has always translated into positive outcomes is another matter altogether. This part of the sporting world was never as administratively robust…
australiansportreflections
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Paralympians Join the Mainstream – Australian Paralympic Committee Brings in Reform Across Sport
History of Australian Sport Policy Series: Part 23 By Greg Hartung AO “Mainstreaming” was a fundamental and necessary policy reform on the long journey to win durable outcomes for athletes with a disability and the Paralympic movement. Designed and promoted by the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) in the period before and after the Sydney 2000…
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From Sporting Cripples to Powerful Advocates – How the Paralympic Movement Arrived at its Alcott Moment.
By Greg Blood and Tony Naar The announcement of Dylan Alcott as 2022 Australian of the Year is a significant milestone. Alcott became the first Australian with a visible disability to be awarded this honour. Not only that, but Alcott is a Paralympian, the first to be honoured as Australian of the Year in the…
australiansportreflections
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Australian First Female Paralympic Marathon Gold Medallist: Jan Randles Journey
By Jan Randles I was born on the 23rd of August 1945 in Melbourne, Australia. In 1974, while enjoying a very successful career as an Advertising Art Director both in Melbourne and overseas, I went to Bali on a holiday, where I fell off a motor bike down a cliff and broke my back. Looking…