// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Sandy Blythe? A shore thing.
 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
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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.
Biography
[edit]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
[edit]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]
References
[edit]- 1 2 "Blythe, Robert, OAM". It's an Honour. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
- 1 2 "Blythe, Robert Alexander: Australian Sports Medal". It's an Honour. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
- ↑ "Australians at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics: Wheelchair Basketball". Australian Sports Commission. Archived from the original on 19 January 2000.
- 1 2 3 4 Petrie, Andrea (19 November 2005). "Disabled basketball champion dies at 43". The Age. p. 7. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- 1 2 3 Campbell, Di (20 December 2005). "Sandy Blythe". University of Ballarat. Archived from the original on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ↑ "Sandy Blythe". Paralympic.org. International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- 1 2 "Sandy Blythe". Basketball Australia. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ↑ Grant, Freya (6 December 2000). "Blythe shares early lead – name a supercat". The Daily Telegraph. p. 18.
- ↑ Nihil, G. (2006). Australian Institute of Sport : celebrating excellence. Focus Publishing. p. 104. ISBN 1-921156-16-3.
- ↑ Blythe, Sandy (2000). Blythe Spirit. Sydney: Pan MacMillan. ISBN 9780732910273.
- ↑ Petrie, Andrea (25 November 2005). "Farewell to a champion athlete for whom life had lost its crucial blithe spirit". The Age. p. 8. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
- ↑ Edmund, Sam (22 November 2005). "Tributes flow for trailblazer; Tragic death of Paralympian". Herald Sun. p. 9.
- ↑ Scalzo, Michael (16 February 2022). "Jannik Blair honoured with Sandy Blythe medal win". The Weekly Advertiser. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1962 births
- 2005 suicides
- 2005 deaths
- Australian Institute of Sport Athletes with a Disability alumni
- Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Australia
- Paralympic gold medalists for Australia
- Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 1988 Summer Paralympics
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 1992 Summer Paralympics
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 1996 Summer Paralympics
- Wheelchair basketball players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics
- Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
- Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal
- People with paraplegia
- Sportspeople from Geelong
- Federation University Australia alumni
- Suicides in Victoria (state)
- Australian sportspeople who committed suicide
- People with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
- Male suicides
- 20th-century Australian sportsmen