Ron Finneran

Ronald 'Ron' James Finneran OAM (born 1944) is an Australian Paralympic athlete and sports administrator, from Merimbula, New South Wales.

Finneran was born in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra. He lost the full use of both his legs and his right arm after contracting polio aged about 20 months. He took up skiing in 1972 after a visit to the Thredbo Ski Resort and trained in the United States and Canada. He was Australia's only participant at the 1976 Winter Paralympics in Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, where he marched in the opening ceremony. However, he did not compete, as there were no events for his disability. He remained in Sweden after the Games until 1978 to study and train. At the 1984 World Championships in Switzerland he came 4th in the downhill.

.

In 1978, with Canadian ski instructor Bruce Abel and Australian ski instructor Nick Dean, he formed the Australian Disabled Skiers Federation, now Disabled Winter Sport Australia (DWSA). He retired as Executive Director of DWSA in January 2010 after 31 years in the role. Whilst in the role of Executive Director, he was able transform disabled skiing in Australia particularly in terms of facilities, training programs, talent development and government support. In 1992, Australian Disabled Skiing Federation opened its own ski lodge called Finsko's Lodge, the name of the lodge recognized Finneran's considerable work to its development. He also played a major role in the establishment of the Jindabyne Winter Academy, a program designed to assist elite and talented able bodied and disabled alpine skiers. The result of Finneran's worked culminated in 2001 with the Australian Institute of Sport establishing a Paralympic Alpine Skiing Program in conjunction with the Australian Paralympic Committee.

...
Wikipedia