Sandy Blythe

Sandy Blythe

Sandy Blythe in action during competition at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics
Personal information
Full name	Robert Alexander Blythe
Nationality	Australia
Born	24 February 1962 Geelong, Australia
Died	18 November 2005(2005-11-18) (aged 43) Melbourne, Australia
Medal record Wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 1996 Atlanta Men's wheelchair basketball

Robert Alexander "Sandy" Blythe, OAM (24 February 1962 – 18 November 2005) was an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He became a paraplegic due to a car accident in 1981, and went on to participate in the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at four Paralympic Games, captaining the gold-medal-winning team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. He committed suicide in 2005 at the age of 43 after a long illness.

Blythe was born in Geelong on 24 February 1962. He grew up in a farm outside the Victorian town of Derrinallum and was a champion Australian rules football player as a teenager. He played in the Teal Cup and was later part of the St Kilda Football Club country squad. In 1981, he began studying at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education, but later that year, he was involved in a three-car collision that rendered him paraplegic. In 1984 he obtained his physical education degree on schedule, despite his six-month rehabilitation at Austin Hospital.

He was part of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 2000 Sydney Paralympics. He was the captain of the team when it won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and was co-captain with Priya Cooper of the Australian Paralympic team at the 2000 Sydney Games. He had an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship in 1998 for wheelchair basketball.