† 1944-2006

Neroli Susan Fairhall MBE was a former archer competing for New Zealand and the first paraplegic athlete to compete in the Olympic Games.

She took up archery following a motorbike accident that paralysed her from the waist down.

Fairhall competed in athletics and archery at her first two Paralympic Games in 1972 and 1980, taking archery gold at Arnhem 1980.

Four years later in Los Angeles, she became the first paraplegic athlete to compete at the Olympics, finishing 35th in the archery event.

The New Zealander went on to compete at the 1988 and 2000 Paralympics.

She was awarded the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II and the prestigious Lonsdale Cup from the New Zealand Olympic Committee in 1982 in recognition of her archery gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, where she was also the first impaired athlete to compete.

She was posthumously inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame on 9 September 2016 in a ceremony held at the Rio 2016 IPC’s Hospitality Centre.

Neroli died on 11 June 2006 at the age of 61.