John Martin (Paralympian)

Martin was born in the English town of Eastleigh in 1943, as the youngest of three children. His father was a carpenter, aircraft mechanic and keen soccer player and his mother was a homemaker.[1] While in England he attended The Crescent Primary School and Toynbee Road Secondary Boys School, where he played soccer and cricket and was a cross-country runner.[1] He moved with his family to Australia in 1956 at the age of 13; they emigrated there due to Martin's sister's rheumatic fever.[1] They moved to the Sydney suburb of Riverstone where he attended Richmond High School.[1] He left school at the age of almost fifteen to work at a timber yard with his father.[1]

In November 1961, aged 18, he contracted polio.[1] He married his first wife, Robyn (née Torrington) in 1967, who was part of a group of people who put on functions to raise money for people with paraplegia; they divorced in 1980. He has three children, two sons and a daughter, and six grandchildren.[1] He worked at 3M from 1973 to 1998, eventually becoming a warehouse manager.[1] In 1998 he moved from Sydney to Brisbane, and he lives in the Brisbane suburb of Birkdale.[1]

Martin began playing wheelchair sport during rehabilitation, and soon excelled at table tennis, defeating the New South Wales champion.[1] At the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, he won a silver medal in the Men's St. Nicholas Round Team open event.[2] He participated in the 1966 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Kingston, Jamaica, where he won three gold, four silver and two bronze medals.[3] At the 1968 Tel Aviv Paralympics, he participated in athletics, table tennis, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair fencing, winning two silver medals in the Men's Slalom B and Men's 4x40 m Relay open events.[2][4] He won several medals at the 1970 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Edinburgh, and equalled the world record in the 100 m at the 1970 Australian National Championships in Melbourne, the qualifying event for the Edinburgh games.[1] At the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics, he severely cut his hand during a wheelchair basketball game, which virtually ended his campaign;[1] apart from wheelchair basketball, he participated in athletics events at the games, but did not win any medals.[2][4] He won three gold and two silver medals in the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin.[1] He went to each Stoke Mandeville Games from 1974 to 1981 and won gold medals in the pentathlon in 1974 and 1975.[1] In 1975, he won five gold and three silver medals at the first FESPIC Games in Japan.[1] That year, he was the first person in a wheelchair to compete in Sydney's City2Surf race; the organisers did not allow him to participate in the previous two events because they did not think he could complete the course.[1]

He equalled the world record in the 1500 m event at the 1976 Australian National Championships, the qualifying event for the 1976 Toronto games.[1] He was the captain–coach of the wheelchair basketball team at the games[1][4] and also participated in athletics and table tennis events.[2] He was the captain of the Australian team at the 1977 Stoke Mandeville Games where he won a gold medal in the slalom event, a silver medal in lawn bowls and a bronze medal in wheelchair basketball.[1] He also participated in the second FESPIC Games in Sydney in that year.[1] At the 1980 Arnhem Paralympics, he participated in athletics and table tennis events.[2] The 1981 Stoke Mandeville Games was his last international event, but he continued to play wheelchair basketball for the New South Wales team until 1988.[1]