Ashley Phillip Adams (12 October 1955 – 17 March 2015) was an Australian Paralympic shooting medallist and cattle grazier.

Personal

Adams was born on 12 October 1955 in

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

. He became a paraplegic in 1982 at the age of 26 after being involved in an accident at a local motorbike competition, where he fell off his motorbike and broke his back. Following his accident, he underwent a six-month period of rehabilitation. He was a cattle grazier who owned a station near

Blackall, Queensland Blackall is a rural town and locality in the Blackall-Tambo Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is the service centre for the Blackall-Tambo Region. The dominant industry in the area is grazing with over 70 homesteads in the locality (a ...

. He made extensive modifications to the station's infrastructure to improve his access to the land, including the installation of gates that open both ways. He produced TendaBeef, and supported the genetic breeding of cattle. Adams died on 17 March 2015 after a

quad bike An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike or quad (if it has four wheels), as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, has a seat ...

accident on his farm. He was 59.

Competitive shooting

Adams was a competitive sport shooter. He started shooting competitively in 1993, after some previous experience with shooting working on farms. Events he competed in included R3 Mixed Air Rifle Prone, R1 Men's 10m Air Rifle Standing, R6 Mixed 50m Free Rifle Prone and R7 Free Rifle 3x40 50m. When he competed in club-based events, he represented the Charleville Small Bore Rifle Club. He shot from a prone position on the ground similar to that of Olympic competitors, instead of a prone position in his wheelchair. He had 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 from 1998 to 2000. In 1998, Adams set a world record at the English Match and won a gold medal in the 50m Rifle Prone event at the IPC Shooting World Championships in

Santander, Spain Santander ( , ; ) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain. It has a population of 172,000 (2017). It is a port city located in the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Cantab ...

. He finished first at the Swiss Open in 2002 and 2003. In 2007, he won a gold medal and a bronze medal at the Korean Cup. That same year, he finished first at the Australian Open Able-body Prone National Championship. In 2011, he competed in

ISSF World Cup The ISSF World Cup was introduced by the International Shooting Sport Federation in 1986 to provide a homogeneous system for qualification to the Olympic shooting competitions. It still is carried out in the Olympic shooting events, with four comp ...

events in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and Spain, where he finished first in the Spanish .22 event and second in the Turkish air rifle event. In Spain, he also picked up fourth place in the men's R7 50m rifle 3 position SH1 event and seventh in the R1 10m air rifle SH1 event. In 2011, he was ranked first in the world in two different shooting events. In that year, he was also ranked as one of the top able-bodied open shooters in Australia. He was ranked in the top ten in the world for three events at the end of 2014.

Paralympics

Adams first represented Australia at an international level in the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. He went on to compete at the 2000 Sydney,

2004 Athens The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

, 2008 Beijing and

2012 London The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Paralympics. at the 2004 Athens Games, he won a silver medal in the Mixed Free Rifle Prone SH1 event and a bronze medal in the Men's Air Rifle Standing SH1 event. At the 2008 Beijing Games, he finished fourth in both the 10 m air rifle standing event the 50 m free rifle prone events. He finished in the top twenty in all four of his events at the 2012 London Games.

Recognition

Adams was recognised several times for his sporting accomplishments. He won a Merit Award given out by the

Australian Paralympic Committee Paralympics Australia (PA) previously called the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) (1998–2019) is the National Paralympic Committee in Australia for the Paralympic Games movement. It oversees the preparation and management of Australian tea ...

. He twice won the Male Athlete Senior

Sporting Wheelies The Sporting Wheelies and Disabled Association was the peak body for sport, recreation and fitness for people with a physical disability or vision impairment in the Australian state of Queensland. In January 2024, all the staff, assets and liabi ...

Award and received an

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, off ...

in 2000. Australia's national peak body for target shooting sports, Shooting Australia, awards the Ashley Adams Perpetual Trophy each year, which recognises the best and fairest athlete of a calendar year as voted upon by only "Aiming4Gold" squadded athletes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Ashley 1955 births 2015 deaths 21st-century Australian sportsmen Australian male sport shooters Paralympic shooters for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia Paralympic medalists in shooting Shooters at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Shooters at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Shooters at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Shooters at the 2008 Summer Paralympics Shooters at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair-category Paralympic competitors Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal People with paraplegia Sportsmen from Queensland Sportspeople from Toowoomba Road incident deaths in Queensland 20th-century Australian sportsmen