Born Perth, W.A.

10 June, 1980

SWIMMING, BASKETBALL

Justin Eveson has the rare distinction of winning medals int wo sports at four Paralympic Games.

In January 1993, at the age of 12 Eveson lost his right lower leg in a machinery accident, but this failed to deter him from his dream of becoming a champion sportsman. Blessed with a strong work ethic and fierce determination, he quickly developed into an outstanding swimmer and he won the Wheelchair Sports WA Association Junior Sports Star award four years in a row between 1996 and 1999.

He then graduated to the Australian swimming team and at the2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney he earned a silver medal as a member of the 4x100mfreestyle relay squad and a bronze in the 4x100m medley relay.

A keen desire to compete in a team sport saw Eveson switch to wheelchair basketball and he started with the Perth Wheelcats in 2001 before gaining selection in the national team the following year. He enjoyed great success with the Wheelcats who won the national championship five years in arow – 2005 to 2009.

Individual honours were many and included being named three times as Australia’s International Wheelchair Basketballer of the Year receiving the Sandy Blythe Medal as the International Wheelchair Player of the Year in 2008 and being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to sport as a medallist at the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.

Eveson shone for the Rollers in consecutive Paralympic Games – in Athens in 2004 (silver medal), in Beijing in 2008 (gold) and in London in 2012 (silver).

He played as a professional in wheelchair basketball in Australia, Italy, Spain and Turkey and a highlight of his illustrious career was when he was made captain of the Rollers, who won the World Cup in Manchester in 2008.

Eveson was part of the 2009 Australian gold-winning combination which won the IWBF Asia-Oceania championship and the world challenge team tournament. Then, in 2010, Eveson was the star of the Rollers team which claimed victory in the IWBF world championship and was recognised or his performance by being named as one of the World All Star Five for the tournament.

Eveson scored 16 points when the Rollers earned silver in the 2012 London Paralympics, with Canada winning the final, 64-58. He continued in superb form in the following few years as a member of the Wheelcats which won the national title in 2013 and of the Rollers team which won the world championship, defeating the USA 63-57 in the final in South Korea, with a sterling contribution of 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists.