| Mark Davies | |
| Fullname: | Mark Hedley Davies |
| Birth Date: | 30 June 1960 |
| Birth Place: | Darwin, Northern Territory |
| Death Place: | Darwin, Northern Territory |
Mark Hedley Davies[1] (30 June 1960 – 9 January 2011)[2] [3] was an Australian Paralympic athlete. He was born in Darwin, and was the first man to represent the Northern Territory in sport for the blind.[2] [4] He had a degenerative eye condition that caused tunnel vision; he found it more difficult to compete in able-bodied sports as he got older, and by 2000, he had lost all of his sight.[4] [5]
He began his athletic career before the establishment of the Northern Territory Institute of Sport, so he had to organise all his training and transport independently.[6] In 1982 he joined the newly formed Northern Territory Blind Sports Association, and went on to win many medals and break Australian records at national blind sporting championships.[5] At the 1984 New York/Stoke Mandeville Paralympics, he won gold medals in the Men's Pentathlon B2, where he broke a world record, and the Men's 100 m B2.[5] [7] He also competed in athletics without winning any medals at the 1988 Seoul, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta, and 2000 Sydney Games.[7] He worked as an athletics coach, and assisted other blind sportspeople in the Northern Territory.[5] [8] In 2000, he received an Australian Sports Medal.[1]
He died in Darwin on 9 January 2011, a week after the death of his wife.[3] [4] The Australian Paralympic Committee described him as "a genuine pioneer of the Australian Paralympic movement".[9]