Matt Franklin Lewis (born 8 January 1987) is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He won a gold medal at the

2016 Rio Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

as a member of the Australian Steelers.

Personal

Lewis was born on 8 January 1987. In 2011, at the age of 24, he was severely injured when making a home made bomb using a

gas cylinder A gas cylinder is a pressure vessel for storage and containment of gases at above atmospheric pressure. High-pressure gas cylinders are also called ''bottles''. Inside the cylinder the stored contents may be in a state of compressed gas, vapor ...

. The bomb making operation went badly wrong and left him in an induced coma for just over a month. He lost most of his fingers and both his legs had to be amputated above the knees. In addition, his hearing is impaired and he has many scars on his body. In 2016, he was completing an electrical apprenticeship. He assists programs that educate young people about the dangers of risk taking.

Wheelchair rugby

Lewis was introduced to wheelchair rugby by Victorian coach

Bryce Alman Bryce Alman (born 19 January 1976 in North Dandenong, Victoria) is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair rugby player. He was part of the Australian Steelers at the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing The 2008 Summer Olympics (), ...

. In 2013/14, he played for Seattle Storm in the USA national league for five months and won a number of MVP awards. In 2014, he was selected to play for the national team the

Australian Steelers Wheelchair rugby is a sport with national representation at the Paralympic games. The Australian Team is known as the 'Steelers'. Australia has competed at every Paralympics Games since the sport gained full Paralympic Medal status at the 200 ...

. In 2016, he was the MVP at the Wheelchair Rugby National Series. He was a member of the team that retained its gold medal at the

after defeating the United States 59–58 in the final. He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Matt Paralympic wheelchair rugby players for Australia Wheelchair rugby players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Victorian Institute of Sport alumni 1987 births Living people Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Paralympic medalists in wheelchair rugby