Marty Mayberry

Mayberry was born on 9 February 1986,[1] and grew up in Byron Bay, New South Wales,[2][3] where he attended Byron Bay High School.[4] By 2009, he resided in Queensland,[5] and was living in Yeerongpilly, Queensland by 2010.[6] In June 2010, he married a woman he met at a music festival.[4]

Following a high school ski trip when he was in year 11,[4] Mayberry contracted meningococcal disease at the age of 16, and this resulted in double below the knee amputations.[2][7] He was in a coma for two weeks as a result of the disease,[7] and, when he woke up at Byron Bay Hospital, learned his legs had been amputated.[4] One of the things that motivated him to keep going during rehabilitation was the opportunity for sports.[8]

Mayberry studied health sciences at Griffith University,[9][10] and medicine at the University of Sydney.[10] He went into medicine partly because of his illness during high school.[4][11][12] He relocated to Sydney with his fiancé to do so not long before the start of the 2009—2010 ski season.[9] In August 2010, he was the opening speaker at the Amanda Young Foundation Meningococcal Conference,[13] and in 2010 and 2011, worked part-time at the Kids Research Institute at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, where he was in contact with "Robert Booy in his research on the psycho-social impact of meningococcal B on families."[14] He wrote up his experiences in dealing with meningococcal infection in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health.[15]

He lives by Gandhi's quote "Be the change you want to see in the world".[1]

Mayberry is an LW3 classified skier[16] who competes in standing events using a pair of artificial legs.[11] Prior to contracting meningococcal, he was involved with skiing.[17] He was back to competing at it on the disability side by 2004.[18] When fully kitted out, he looks like an able-bodied skier,[19] and is capable of skiing faster than 110 kilometres per hour (68 mph).[11] He received support for his skiing from the Australian Institute of Sport, New South Wales Institute of Sport and the Australian Government Sports Training Grants program.[20]

Mayberry has won medals at IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup events and the Paralympic Games.[21][22][23] He made his Australian national team debut in 2005 at the European Cup Finals,[23][24] and went on to represent Australia the following year at the 2006 Torino Games where he failed to medal in the four men's standing events he competed in.[23] He finished 33rd in the downhill, 21st in the Giant Slalom, 19th in the Slalom and did not finish in the Super G.[7][23] Mayberry attributed his poor performance at the 2006 Games to his prosthetic legs, which "just didn't feel right during the speed events in Italy."[7] Following those Games, he worked with prosthetist Peter Farrand to develop new legs that would address the problems in Italy.[7] Continuing to ski following the 2006 Games, he earned a gold medal at a World Cup event in 2007 in Slalom,[17][24] and earned a bronze medal in slalom event at a 2008 World Cup competition.[24]

During Australia's 2009—2010 summer, Mayberry was based in Europe and North America for training.[19] At the 2009 World Championships, he had a pair of sixth places finished in the Super G and downhill events.[18] That year, at a Spanish hosted IPC World Cup, he crashed in the giant slalom event and did not score a time.[5] He was officially named to the Australian 2010 Winter Paralympics team in November 2009.[25] A ceremony was held in Canberra with Australian Paralympic Committee president Greg Hartung and Minister for Sport Kate Ellis making the announcement.[26] Mayberry was selected to the largest Winter Paralympics team that Australia had ever sent to the Games.[19]

In 2010, he was the only elite skier with his type of disability in his classification.[19] At the second to last World Cup event before the 2010 Games, on a course in Vancouver, Canada, he won a silver medal in the downhill with a time of 1:16.02.[12][27] In Aspen, Colorado, at the last World Cup event before the 2010 Games, he won a gold medal in the downhill event.[7][8][27] Prior to the start of the Games, he participated in a national team training camp in Vail, Colorado before the Aspen hosted World Cup.[19] He and the rest of Australia's para-alpine team arrived in the Paralympic village on 9 March 2010.[28]

As a 24-year-old,[11] Mayberry competed in five events in the 2010 Paralympic games: downhill, super G, super combined, giant slalom, and slalom.[29] His parents were in Vancouver to watch him compete.[18] Mayberry won a silver medal[1] in the men's standing downhill event where he tied with another skier,[23][30] and had a combined time of 1:22.78[7] He finished 24th in the Super-G,[23] was disqualified from the slalom event after missing a gate,[23][31] and did not finish in the Giant Slalom.[23] Following the Games, he returned with the team to Sydney, where he attended a press conference at Sydney International Airport.[32] He won an Australian Institute of Sport Sport Achievement Award in 2010.[22] By September 2010, he had retired from elite skiing,[33][34] one of several 2010 Winter Paralympic skiers to retire following the games. Others who retired at the same time he did included Shannon Dallas and Bart Bunting.[33]