Sandy Blythe

Blythe was born in Geelong on 24 February 1962.[3] He grew up in a farm outside the Victorian town of Derrinallum and was a champion Australian rules football player as a teenager. 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, but later that 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 also 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 committed suicide; he had been suffering from depression and chronic fatigue syndrome for several years.[4][11] He was survived by his partner of eight years, wheelchair basketballer Paula Coghlan.[12]

Blythe received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 for his 1996 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]