John Harris

John Harris (born 1945) is a former Paralympic athlete from Wales competing mainly in category 5 throwing events. In 1984 he became the world record holder in the discus winning gold at the Summer Paralympics, following this with silver in the discus and bronze in the Pentathlon four years later.

Career history Harris was born in Sebastopol, Torfaen, a suburb of Pontypool in south Wales. A keen athlete as a youth, Harris was involved in gymnastics, rugby union and boxing. At the age of 18, Harris was on holiday at a Butlins holiday camp when he fell 18 metres from a big wheel resulting in the paralysis of his legs. The injury left him in hospital for five months, and after his release he "wasted the next three years in the pub".

Harris' involvement in parasports began when a friend persuaded him to attend a gym in an attempt to improve his fitness and give him focus. Harris then joined a paraplegic sports club and showed promise as a competitor after winning multiple events at a local sport event.

Four years later Harris was back in the Great Britain team at the 1984 Summer Paralympics. Harris originally decided to not apply for the team, after being disgusted at what he saw was the poor treatment of Paralympic athletes in comparison to their Olympic counterparts. He believed that Los Angeles should not have been allowed to pull out of hosting the Paralympic Games in 1984, but was talked around to taking part by a friend. Although Harris did not finish in the top three in either javelin or shot put, his main focus for a medal was the discus. Before his final attempt he was sitting in sixth place, but his Paralympic record breaking throw gave him the gold medal. The two decided to raise funds for, and awareness of, disability sport by taking part in a 400-mile wheelchair trip around Wales in just 11 days. The funds they raised allowed for the building of national centre for disability sport to be built at the University of Wales Institute, at the Cyncoed Campus site. He finished fourth in the pentathlon, but was later awarded the bronze medal.

Harris took part in two more Summer Paralympics though he did not medal again. At the 1992 Games in Barcelona he competed in the javelin, pentathlon and 4 × 100 m relay, while in 1996 he represented Britain in the Pentathlon.

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