Sandy Blythe
Australian wheelchair basketball player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Alexander "Sandy" Blythe, OAM[1][2] (24 February 1962 – 18 November 2005) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He became a paraplegic due to a car accident in 1981, and went on to participate in the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at four Paralympic Games, captaining the gold medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. He died by suicide in 2005 at the age of 43 after a long illness.
Sandy Blythe in action during competition at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics | |||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Robert Alexander Blythe | ||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 February 1962 Geelong, Victoria, Australia | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 18 November 2005 (aged 43) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Biography
Blythe was born in Geelong on 24 February 1962[3] and grew up in a farm outside the Victorian town of Derrinallum. As a teenager, he was a champion Australian rules football player. He played in the Teal Cup and was later part of the St Kilda Football Club country squad.[4] In 1981, he began studying at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education. Later the same year, he was involved in a three-car collision that rendered him paraplegic.[4][5] In 1984, he obtained his physical education degree on schedule, despite his six-month rehabilitation at Austin Hospital.[5]
He was part of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 2000 Sydney Paralympics.[6] He was the captain of the team when it won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and was co-captain with Priya Cooper of the Australian Paralympic team at the 2000 Sydney Games.[7][8] He had an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship in 1998 for wheelchair basketball.[9]
Blythe was a motivational speaker who formed and worked in several businesses that improved public awareness of people with disabilities.[4][5] In 2000, he released a memoir, Blythe Spirit.[10]
On 18 November 2005, Blythe died by suicide; for several years he had had depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.[4][11] At the time of his death, he had been in an eight-year domestic partnership with wheelchair basketball player Paula Coghlan.[12]
Recognition
In 1997, Blythe received a Medal of the Order of Australia for his 1996 Paralympic gold medal.[1] In 2000, he received an Australian Sports Medal.[2]
The Sandy Blythe Medal, awarded to the best player of the year in the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, is named in his honour.[13] In 2010, he was posthumously inducted into the Australian Basketball Hall of Fame.[7]