301000 - Athletics track 4 x 100m T46 relay Heath Francis gold medal - 3b - 2000 Sydney medal photo

Heath Wesley Francis, OAM (born 16 November 1981 in Newcastle, New South Wales is an Australian athlete who has participated in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...

. His right arm was amputated at the age of seven as a result of a mincing accident on his family farm in Booral, New South Wales.

Professional career

At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics he became the first arm amputee athlete to win the sprint treble (100m, 200m and 400m events) at a Paralympics, a feat he accomplished 2 years earlier at the 2006 IPC World Championships. He competes in the T46 classification for arm amputees, where he is the current 200m (21.74s) & 400m (47.63s) World Record holder. Both World Record times were run at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. In 2000, his competitive sport participation was sponsored by the

New South Wales WorkCover New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. He received a Medal of The Order of Australia for his 2000 gold medals. He also received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or go ...

in 2001. He was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder from 2003 to 2010 and was coached by

Irina Dvoskina Iryna Dvoskina (born 22 December 1958) is a Ukraine-born Australian athletics coach who works with Paralympic athletes. Biography Being an only child, she came to Australia in 2003 to be closer to her mother Fira (born 20 September 1934), who h ...

. In 2014, he was inducted into the

Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre is a multi-use stadium in Sydney Olympic Park, Australia. The capacity of the stadium is 5,000 spectators. It also hosted the 1996 World Junior Championships in Athletics and served as the warm-up track for th ...

Path of Champions. 120908_-_Heath_Francis_T46_400m_final_3_of_3_-_3b

Personal life

Heath Francis completed his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Business Degrees from the University of Newcastle (2000–2007) whilst training at the

. Francis turned his focus to advancing his professional career and used his profile as a Paralympic athlete to increase awareness of . He currently works for Westpac Bank. He also had joined charity organization like CARE Australia an
The Australian Himalayan Foundation
As an ambassador for Good Return, Francis join Charity event lik
Sun run
had raised more than $17,000 for funding training and consumer protection work to give people living in poverty the chance to grow their incomes safely and effectively.

References

External links

at Australian Athletics Historical Results
Good Return

Sun run
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis, Heath Living people Paralympic athletes for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Child amputees Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal Australian Institute of Sport Paralympic track and field athletes 1981 births World record holders in para-athletics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Sprinters with limb difference Australian amputees Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Athletes (track and field) at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Australian male sprinters Paralympic sprinters Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Newcastle, New South Wales Sportsmen from New South Wales