Michael Joseph Norton

Michael Joseph Norton, (22 April 1964 – 22 August 1996) was an Australian Paralympic alpine skier. As a paraplegic sit skier, he won two gold medals at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Paralympics.

Personal Norton grew up on a dairy farm in Leongatha, Victoria. He attended Leongatha High School and left in year four. In February 1984, on the way home from work on his motorbike, he hit a rock and came off the bike near Foster in South Gippsland and became paralysed. At the time of the accident, he was an electrician. Graeme Johnstone, the Victorian Coroner, found that he had died of a heroin overdose. The coroner also stated there was no evidence that Norton was a long-term user of heroin or other illicit drugs. During training in the days preceding the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Paralympics, he had a crash that resulted in him being unconscious. Despite the crash, he went on to win two gold medals in the Men's Slalom LWXI and Men's Super-G LWXI events, Also, he was a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. In 1994, he was awarded the Australian Skier of the Year.

Advocacy

He was a strong advocate for people with a disability. He came out strongly against Australian sport administrator Arthur Tunstall who stated that it was embarrassing to have disabled athletes at the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Norton stated "It's obvious he doesn't know how much disabled people wanted to get to the Games. I mean, they're breaking their backs to get there."