Dan Buckingham
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
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| Born |
25 September 1980 Invercargill |
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| Sport | |||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair rugby | ||||||||||||
| Disability class | 3.0 | ||||||||||||
| Club | Auckland | ||||||||||||
| Team | Wheel Blacks (2001–current) | ||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Updated on 27 December 2014. | |||||||||||||
Dan Buckingham (born 25 September 1980) is a wheelchair rugby player from New Zealand, and a member of the national team, the Wheel Blacks. He works as Digital Producer for TV Production Company Attitude.
Dan was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, and grew up in rural Southland. He is the youngest of 3 siblings.
He was educated at St Kevin's College (1994–96) and Verdon College (1997-98) where he captained the schools First XV rugby team.
In 1999 while attending Otago University he sustained a fracture dislocation to his C6/7 vertebrae while playing club rugby, resulting in paralysis from the chest down, with some loss of function to his hands.
He completed his rehabilitation at Burwood hospital, where he learned to use a manual wheelchair for mobility.
Dan began training with the Canterbury wheelchair rugby team while still in the Burwood hospital spinal injury rehabilitation unit in 1999.
While living in Dunedin he continued to play for Canterbury in 2000, and played his first Nationals tournament for the province that year.
He moved to Christchurch in 2001, and continued to play for the club until 2007.
In 2008 Dan began playing for Auckland after moving to the city at the end of 2007. He is still currently playing for the club, and began coaching the team at the end of 2014.
Dan first made the New Zealand team in 2001, playing a 5 test series against Australia for the Chris Handy Cup, held in Christchurch.
He has competed in four World Championships: Gothenburg 2002, Christchurch 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Odense 2014. He was part of the team that won Silver at the Christchurch 2006 World Championships; the Wheel Blacks lost to the USA in the final.
He competed as part of the Wheel Blacks in the 2004 Summer Paralympics where they won the gold medal, as well as the 2008 Summer Paralympics where they finished 5th.
Dan captained the Wheel Blacks from 2007 - 2013.
Dan has also competed for domestic clubs internationally, including Victoria in Australia, Denver and Lakeshore in the USA, and Quebec in Canada.
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