Gary Hooper was one of Australia’s first Paralympians, one of its first Paralympic medallists, Australia’s first wheelchair track gold medallist and a pioneer in wheelchair athletics during an international career that spanned more than 15 years at the top of his sport in Australia and internationally.
Gary grew up on the New South Wales central coast. He showed his athletic potential in primary school, winning the NSW Public Schools Amateur Athletic Association junior championship (division B) at the Lake Macquarie Zone Carnival in 1949, aged 10, and the 11 years championship (division A) at the South Zone Carnival the following year.
Aged 12, Gary’s life changed forever when he contracted polio and lost the use of both legs. Gary’s athletic career seemed to be over.
However, in 1956, aged 16, Gary was admitted to the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Centre at Jervis Bay, on the NSW South Coast. There, residents with spinal injuries, including polio, were encouraged to develop their physical fitness to ensure that they could live independently. When the centre was transferred to Mount Wilga, at Hornsby in Sydney, a program of sports was developed for residents and outpatients. Physiotherapist Eileen Perrotet and remedial gymnastics therapist Kevin Betts drove the program, following the principles espoused by Ludwig Guttmann, the ‘father’ of the Paralympic movement.
Gary thrived under the regimen of physical training and competition – his interrupted sport career was rekindled. Gary became one of the outstanding competitors at the sport days conducted at Mt Wilga and the Royal North Shore Hospital.
In March 1960, the first National Paraplegic Games was held in Melbourne to select members of an Australian team to attend the first Paralympic Games in Rome. Gary was one of three members of the NSW team who were selected and attended the first Paralympic Games.
In Rome Gary won a silver medal for precision javelin, one of four silvers and a bronze won by the Australian team in athletics, which formed half of Australia’s total Games’ medal tally of ten. He also competed in other events in athletics, in wheelchair basketball and events in swimming and fencing.
At the Tokyo Paralympics in 1964 Gary became Australia’s first wheelchair track gold medallist when he won the men’s “wheelchair dash”.
He won back-to-back Paralympic sprint gold medals when he successfully defended his crown to win the men’s Class A 100m at the 1968 Paralympics in Tel Aviv where he also took silvers in the Shot Put Class B and the 4x40m relay.
In both 1964 and 1968 Gary also competed in throwing events and in swimming, fencing and weightlifting – in Tokyo winning a silver medal in the latter in the men’s lightweight event.
Gary’s Commonwealth Paraplegic Games record was phenomenal. In Perth (1962) nine medals in four sports, including in athletics – gold medals for javelin, precision javelin, club throw and shot put. In Kingston (1966) he contested 16 events in total across five sports and won 12 medals, including, in athletics – gold medals for javelin, club throw, relay and shot and silvers in wheelchair sprint and discus.
Finally in Edinburgh (1970) Gary won six medals in athletics and weightlifting, including gold in the precision javelin and 4X100m relay, silver in the 100m, shot put and slalom and bronze in weightlifting.
Gary attended nine National Paraplegic or National Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, from 1960 to 1976. While it is difficult to find records of the events in which he competed at those Games, his record of achievement was 35 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 16 bronze medals, the majority in athletics.
Over his career Gary won 81 medals at national championships (46 gold) and 26 medals in international athletics competition (14 of them gold). At a time of limited opportunities to compete, Gary was a pioneer and a leader in Australian athletics.
In the 1960s, wheelchair racing was viewed as dangerous for participants, who could be thrown out of their chairs (which would now be considered ‘hospital chairs’) – by the force of their pushes on the unstable wheelchair.
Gary was the most successful of Australia’s pioneer wheelchair racers and the first of only two Australians to win a wheelchair sprint crown at two successive Games.
Gary’s medal record was supported by his ability to push performance boundaries, nationally and internationally. Over his career, he set world or Paralympic records in shot put, javelin, precision javelin, club throw, wheelchair sprint and wheelchair slalom and Australian records in discus. At the 1966 Australian Paraplegic Games, he set two world and four Australian records.
Fundraising was an issue for Australia’s early Paralympic athletes and Gary’s local community supported him to represent his country. In 1960, the Toronto Paraplegic Committee raised £750 to send Gary to his first Paralympic Games. At the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics, he competed in a wheelchair that was donated to him by the Newcastle branch of the RSL. In 1970, the Newcastle community again assisted Gary by raising $1,490 to send him to the Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Edinburgh.
Gary repaid the community’s support for him through his work as a volunteer welfare officer for the Foundation for the Disabled in Newcastle. Gary’s subsequent award as a Member of Order of the British Empire in 1969 was for achievements at the Paraplegic Games and services to disabled persons.
He was a Torchbearer for the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic torch relays and was inducted into the Hunter Region Sporting Hall of Fame in May 2001. Gary has also been chosen in the next group of inductees to the Australian Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Australian Athletics Family extends its condolences to Gary’s family (his wife of 61 years, Jan and their sons, Sean and Glen, six grand and two great grandchildren) along with its appreciation of Gary’s outstanding pathfinding contribution to Para-Athletics in Australia and across the globe.
Gary passed away aged 86 on 13 August 2025 and his Farewell was held on 22 August at St Nicolas Church, Tuncurry (NSW).
By Tony Naar and Brian Roe for Athletics Australia
