Eric Boulter

Eric Boulter (born 15 October 1952) is an Australian swimmer, athlete, and wheelchair basketball player who won two medals at the 1972 Heidelberg Paralympics.

Personal

Boulter was born in Melbourne on 15 October 1952. While on a cycling holiday on the Gold Coast in 1969, he had a fall at the Nerang Velodrome which left him paraplegic.

Competitive career Boulter temporarily checked out of hospital to represent Queensland in his first National Disabled Championships in 1970. He then returned to the Gold Coast and searched for a coach. He found Dave Tomlinson, who worked with him for the rest of his career. He was also the captain of the Australian swimming team at the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he won two gold medals in the Men's 25 m Backstroke and Men's 4x50 m Medley Relay events, and two silver medals in the Men's 25 m Freestyle and Men's 3x25 m Individual Medley events; he broke a Commonwealth record in the backstroke. At the 1977 FESPIC Games in Sydney, he won a gold medal in the Men's 25 m Backstroke event and two silver medals in the Men's 25 m Freestyle and Men's Pentathlon events. He also played wheelchair basketball, representing Queensland in national championships from 1976 until his retirement from sport in 1984.

Recognition Boulter was inducted into the Gold Coast Sporting Hall of Fame in 1999.