Joe Egan led the Australian team in the opening ceremony

Amputee athlete and Australian team captain Joe Egan leads the Australian Team into the arena for the opening ceremony of the 1980 summer Paralympics. Egan was the only non-wheelchair athlete allowed to march in the opening ceremony by the management of the Australian team. For many of the athletes, this highlighted the disjointed nature of the Australian team, which was in fact composed of sub-teams according to impairment type. It was an arrangement that would not change until 1996 and came about largely because there were separate disability sporting organisations but no overriding umbrella group for disability sport in Australia.

Date: June 1980

Author: Video by permission of Don Worley, from the National Film and Sound Archive.

Joe Egan led the Australian team in the opening ceremony

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