When you’re little your parents show you hero’s such as soldiers and movie stars that they think are a good example, or sporting hero’s and they want you to emulate them. They would rather you are into Justin Bieber than gangsta rap, jay-lo than Courtney love, and An Olympic champion rather than an extreme spots champ. Face it your parents would rather you take up swimming and high jump, than take up jumping your BMX bike off a 100ft ramp through explosions! Whether they are showing you john Wayne or Ian Thorpe, they all have one thing in common they all stand tall they all have have muscles and a great body, they’re all Uber healthy. Healthy to most of you means able to stand walk run and every Limb wroks perfectly anything less is looked down upon by most.

Our house was a little different, we knew several Para Olympians personally andmy oldest suster was a therapist at the regency park childrens center for disabled children, most of our nations finest para and disabled athelets at some time trained there becuase of the amazing set up. For the most part, far from being promoted as hero’s and champions most parents would only use a disabled person as a threat of what you’ll end up if you don’t eat your broccoli!

The names and people I will show you below, along with their feats, acts and achievements, equal and in most occasions out shine any by the able bodied and upright.

I and many others in the disabled and wheelchair community have long realised that all it would take for better recognition and through that treatment by society at large, would be for one of us to become such a household name that if the government ever dared to short change his or her community the global villagers would storm the castle. Please read this and after you do research and learn more about the collective achievements that we the disabled community achieve every day. Picture Below

Wheelchair Rock Climber Nick Morozoff

Wheelchair Rock climber Nick Morozoff hangs from a rock face in Sydney Australia. Nick was a keen rock climber before becoming a paraplegic after a car accident. After recovering from his accident Nick decided he wanted to continue his passion for rock climbing so he designed his own light weight wheelchair to accompany him. He has since set up his own company Dynamic Living Designs manufacturing wheelchairs for the disabled.

It is with great sadness that shortly after writing this article about nick I learned Of his passing In Australia. we lost a champion

Wheelchair Rugby made its Paralympic debut as a demonstration event in Atlanta in 1996. It became a medal sport in Sydney in 2000, where the United States won the gold medal. The game was first developed in Canada as a team sport for quadriplegic athletes, and was originally known as “murderball” because of its intense physical nature. After being introduced in the United States, the name was changed to “quad rugby,” but it is also commonly known as wheelchair rugby. The objective of wheelchair rugby is for a player to carry a ball across the opponent’s goal line in order to score a point. A volleyball is used and must be bounced or passed between teammates at least once every 10 seconds during play. The sport is played in four eight-minute stop-time quarters indoors on a basketball court. All players are classified based on their abilities from 0.5 to 3.5 points. Four players from each team are allowed on the court at a time and the classification value between them cannot exceed eight points. Paralympic wheelchair rugby competition is open to male and femalte athletes with physical disabilities such as amputation/limbloss, spinal cord injury/wheelchair-users and cerebral palsy/brain injury/stroke. E-mail questions about wheelchair rugby. Find a local program in your community – visit the Paralympic Activity Network. For more information on wheelchair rugby, visit: U.S. Quad Rugby Association International Wheelchair Rugby Federation

Tim Maloney

Hi, I’m Tim Maloney. I’m a wheelchair basketball player who was born on 6/10/1967. I grew up in Adelaide (thats where my family are from). I have been involved in all sorts of wheelchair sports since I was ten years old. I have tried nearly everything including track and field, motor cycling, swimming, rock climbing, sailing, canoeing, tennis, snorkelling, scuba diving and basketball. What can I say, I love my sport! I use a wheelchair because cancer damaged my spine when I was nine months old, so I couldn’t walk properly. I had my right leg amputated above the knee when I was eleven years old, then I started to use a wheelchair all the time and I also have only one kidney, but the only thing that slows me down is the red dust in the NT. Wheelchair Basketball teams I have played for: Adelaide Thunder, Wollongong Roller Hawks, Bradford Bears (England), University of Kentucky WheelKats (USA), and The Australian Team (The Rollers 1989 – 1998). Highlights: Being part of the team that won the wheelchair basketball Gold Medal in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games. I have won seven National Wheelchair Basketball League Championships, one with the Wollongong Roller Hawks and six with Adelaide Thunder. I broke and held the world record in the 800m in wheelchair racing from 1985-87

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