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Roy Fowler
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He played rugby league and competed in swimming for his school until he was twelve, when he went to the outback to work at a drover"s camp during the Great Depression. At the age of fourteen, he had his first professional fight. During World World War II, he was a gunner in the 2/2 Tank Attack Regiment of the Australian Army, and after the war, he toured Australia as part of a tag team professional wrestling circuit.
In 1963 he had a cerebral haemorrhage after a coalmining accident, and became a quadriplegic.
He spent six months in the spinal unit of the Princess Alexandra Hospital and then went to the Kingshome Rehabilitation Centre, where he was introduced to wheelchair sport. He died on 17 September 2002 at the age of 82.
He was nicknamed "Chook". In 1981 he took up lawn bowls, and reached the semi-finals in the sport at the 1983 Stoke Mandeville Games.
The first Paralympic gold medallist in lawn bowls from Queensland, he was undefeated in national disabled competitions from 1982 to 1991, winning nine national singles titles, and excelled in able-bodied lawn bowls competitions.
In 2000 at the age of 80, Fowler participated in the Paralympic torch relay.
Achievements
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Fowler"s first international competition was the 1964 Tokyo Games, where he won three gold medals in swimming in the Men"s 25 m Breaststroke complete class 1, Men"s 25 m Freestyle Prone complete class 1, and Men"s 25 m Freestyle Supine complete class 1 events, and two silver medals in archery in the Men"s Saint Nicholas Round open and Men"s Saint Nicholas Round Team open events. In archery, he also won a silver medal in the Men"s FITA Round open event and a bronze medal in the Men"s FITA Round Team open event at the 1972 Heidelberg Games, and participated but did not win any medals in both archery and dartchery at the 1968 Tel Aviv and 1976 Toronto games. His favourite sport was archery, and he reached the top 20 in the world in able-bodied archery competition. He won two gold medals in the sport at the 1984 New York/Stoke Mandeville Games in both the Men"s Pairs and Singles paraplegic events, the former event with Eric Magennis, and another gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Games in the Men"s Pairs 2–6 event with Stan Kosmala. After a health setback in 1998 that saw him in hospital for a year, he won a gold medal in a national competition months after his release. He won 100 medals in national and international wheelchair sport. That year, he received an Australian Sports Meda
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Born
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Died
September 17, 2002 (aged 82) -
Nationality
Australia