Timeline - Paralympics

Year

1960

National Games medals and tickets to Rome for Cunningham and Coombs

1960 Paralympian Kevin Coombes reflects on being the first Indigenous Paralympian.

Kevin Coombs discusses traveling to Rome

Members of the 1960 Australian Paralympic Team pose with an entertainer at their hotel in Singapore en route to the first Paralympic Games in Rome, September 1960. At this time, it was seen as beneficial for people with paraplegia to spend time standing and even to learn to 'walk' using crutches and wearing calipers, so Daphne Ceeney (later Hilton) in the back row and Frank Ponta (seated, far left) are out of their wheelchairs in this photo.

Australian team en route to 1960 Rome Paralympics

Australian team marches Tokyo Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony

Australian team Rome Summer Paralympics Opening Ceremony

Pocket from Kevin Coombs’ 1960 team blazer

1960 Paralympian Kevin Coombes reflects on being the first Indigenous Paralympian.

Kevin Coombs on being the first Indigenous Paralympian

Seven members of the 1960 Australian Paralympic Team - the first - at the reunion to mark the 50th anniversary of the Games. The team members and their partners were guests of honour at the 2010 Australian Paralympian of the Year Awards. All but one of the pictured athletes were accompanied by their long-term wives or husbands. Of the 12 athletes who attended the Games, eight were still alive 50 years later (Frank Ponta was too ill to attend). L to R (athlete and partner): Chris O'Brien with his sister; Daphne Hilton (nee Ceeney) and husband Frank; Gary Hooper and wife Jan; APC President Greg Hartung; Bruno Moretti and wife Scarlett; Kevin Coombs and wife Linda; Kevin Cunningham and wife Maureen; and Bill Mather-Brown and wife Nadine.

Australian team 50-year reunion Rome Summer Paralympics

1968

The medicos said "altitude is not for you"

Kevin Coombs on why the 1968 Paralympics were in Israel, not Mexico

1972

Action from the basketball game against the USA

1980

Only the wheelchair team marched in the opening ceremony

Size isn’t everything, but it helps in basketball

1984

Just the one Aussie flag carried at the Stoke Mandeville opening

The Games opens, and Kevin Coombs gives Prince Charles a hat

Tip-off, as Australia takes on Great Britain in basketball

2000

© Sport the library/Bill BachmanSydney 2000 Paralympic GamesOpening CeremonyAustralia - Brendan Burkett - Swimming, carrying the flag

GALLERY: The opening ceremony celebrated Australia and its culture.

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