Australia at the 1966 Kingston Commonwealth Paraplegic Games
The Australian team at the 1966 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games consisted of eleven athletes, along with five assistants (escorts) including Kevin Betts, a driving force behind disability sport in New South Wales, and John “Johnno” Johnston, a key individual in the first decade of the Wheelchair Sports Club in Western Australia.
Performance
The Australian team, captained by Bill Mather-Brown, won 85 medals. Multiple gold medalists included Daphne Ceeney, Lorraine Dodd, Gary Hooper, John Martin, Elaine Schreiber, Bill Mather-Brown, Bruno Moretti, Vic Renalson and Mikko Tamminen. Ceeney won gold medals in four sports and thirteen medals overall. She was the only female member of the wheelchair basketball team and was reported to have fallen asleep over her lunch, so fatigued was she from her schedule.
English athletes, however, dominated the overall medal count, winning almost twice as many gold medals as the Australians. A major disappointment was the defeat of the basketball team, which was beaten by the English team in the gold-medal match.
The Australian team at the 1966 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games consisted of eleven athletes and five assistants (escorts).
Date: August 1966
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