No 62: The beginnings of paraplegic sport (1965)
Generations of brave and successful paraplegic athletes owe a debt to Graeme Marett and Father Leo Close.
The two Dunedin men were instrumental in the establishment of organised sport for disabled athletes.
Their passion for providing sporting opportunities for everyone, regardless of ability, led to all sorts of doors being opened.
Marett was 21 when he was involved in a serious car accident and faced the reality of life in a wheelchair.
A keen outdoorsman before the accident, he saw paraplegic sport as a chance to keep his body and, particularly, his mind active.
"Sport was a stepping stone to a fuller life," Marett said in a 1972 interview.
"I would suggest that new paraplegics should participate in sport as soon as possible after their accident."
In 1964, Marett met Fr Close, an Irish priest who arrived in New Zealand after competing at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
They became firm friends and the following year helped establish the Paraplegic and Physically Disabled Association of Otago and Southland.
The organisation, now known as Parafed Otago, was effectively the beginning of paraplegic sport in New Zealand.
Marett excelled in field events and archery, and in 1968 he was selected to represent New Zealand at the paraplegic Olympics in Mexico.
Two years later he went to the paraplegic Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and the Stoke Mandeville Games, winning 10 medals in field events, pentathlon and archery.
The 1972 paraplegic Olympic Games in Germany netted him a silver medal in the discus and bronze in the pentathlon.
Marett retired from competition in the late 1970s but remained involved in club archery and enjoyed coaching young athletes.
He died in 1999 aged 61.
Parafed Otago holds an annual sporting event in memory of Fr Close, the first wheelchair user to be ordained as a Catholic priest.
