231000 - Sailing sonar Jamie Dunross Noel Robins Graeme Martin action 11 - 3b - 2000 Sydney race photo

Graeme Martin, OAM is an Australian Paralympic sailor.

Biography

Martin was born on 11 March 1949 in

Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Formerly a firefighter, his left leg was amputated after an accident that occurred while he was fighting a fire caused by

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

at a winery in the Perth suburb of Caversham. In 2000, he won the North American championship for disabled persons in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

with

Noel Robins David Noel Robins, OAM (3 September 1935 – 22 May 2003) was an Australian sailor. He began sailing as a child, and became partially quadriplegic after receiving a spinal fracture from a car crash at the age of 21. He was the sk ...

and

Jamie Dunross Jamie Barry Dunross, OAM (born 28 August 1965) is an Australian sailor who won a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. Personal Dunross was born in Melbourne on 28 August 1965. A former miner, he became a quadriplegic after an explosio ...

, in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Games. At the Games, he won a gold medal with Robins and Dunross in the Mixed Three Person

Sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

event, for which he received a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

. This gold medal achievement was initially the only medal ever won by Australian sailors at the Games. At the

2008 Beijing Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, he won a bronze medal in the Mixed Three Person Sonar event. At these Games, Martin competed alongside 2 other athletes; Russell Boaden and Colin Harrison. In 2020, Martin along with

and

were inducted into the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame.

References

Australian male sailors (sport) Paralympic sailors of Australia Sailors at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Sailors at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia Amputee category Paralympic competitors Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Living people Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics 1949 births Paralympic medalists in sailing {{Australia-Paralympic-medalist-stub