page_title: Ray Barrett (athlete)
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Ray Barrett (athlete) / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Australian Paralympians Terry Giddy (left) and Ray Barrett (right) pose for the camera.
context_page_description: Raymond Barrett was an Indigenous Australian Paralympic athlete left a paraplegic following a car accident. Prior to this he was a champion juvenile athlete in able bodied sports. A Bronze medalist at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Heidelberg Germany, a high achiever at the Stoke Mandeville Games England, Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, National Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, FESPIC Games and State selection trials. A sporting complex in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney is named in his honor. The people of this Shire were his 'significant others'.
context_section_description: Barrett's noted official duties in his sporting career included: An official of the Sutherland Athletic Club and timekeeper for the New South Wales Athletic Association, timekeeper at the 'able bodied' National Games Melbourne Australia, appointed an official for the British Commonwealth Games Selection Trials in October 1973.
  Athletes competing at the 1972 Summer Paralympics Heidelberg, Germany required financial assistance of $1800 to be eligible to attend the Games. Barrett contacted the International Lions Club of Engadine, New South Wales, Australia, who held a fundraising event at the local Returned Servicemens League (RSL) Club and raised $1000 towards the targeted cost. Realizing that additional finance was needed, the club appealed to the Sutherland Shire Council and all local organisations and interested people in the Sutherland Shire, a Local Government area of Sydney, to support The Raymond Barrett Olympic Fund.
  Barrett also wrote to fifty companies seeking sponsorship but without success. He contacted Jack Griffiths, the Promotion Manager of Westfield Shopping Town, Miranda Fair, Miranda, a suburb of Sydney, who held a competition in which the retail industry of the shopping centre provided the prize. Barrett sold raffle tickets throughout the competition and presented the prize of a gold Seiko watch. The generosity of this community in assisting Barrett with funds needed, was recognised at a community event in which the Governor General of Australia attended.
  Major athletic events of Barrett's sporting career: 
  1970 At the National Paraplegic & Quadriplegic Games, Melbourne, he won 9 gold medals in various sports, and was selected athletics 'time keeper' for the able-bodied National Games, Melbourne. At 18 years of age he competed at the Third Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, Edinburgh, Scotland, winning 2 Silver medals in Wheelchair Dash and 1 Bronze medal in Wheelchair Basketball. Barrett's outstanding success at the National Games earned him selection for the Commonwealth Games. From the twenty-member team selected, Barrett was the only athlete from the Sutherland Shire selected to compete at the Games.
  1972 At the 14th Annual Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, 8–14 April, class 2 events, 1st Shot Put; 1st Wheelchair dash; 1st Slalom. 1972 Summer Paralympics, Heidelberg Germany, 1 Bronze medal, 100 metre Wheelchair Dash; 5th Slalom.
  1973 Athletics Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games, Adelaide, South Australia, Class 2, 1st Precision Javelin defeated Frank Ponta by 4 points; 2nd Shot Put; 3rd Discus. At the National Paraplegic & Quadriplegic Games, Holroyd, New South Wales, 18–24 March, 2nd place Silver medal world record,100 metre sprint, he defeated Frank Ponta. Gold medal world record 4 x 100 metre men's relay, Silver medal fencing. At his first competitive event in Rifle Shooting, from a field of 21 competitors he finished 10th, well ahead of Libby Kosmala née L. Richards. Discuss 6th place, Shot Put Bronze medal and Frank Ponta Silver medal. Slalom Gold medal. Historical reports noted that new world records in Class 2 of the 100 metre Wheelchair Sprint were broken.
  1974 Fourth Commonwealth Paraplegic Games, Dunedin, New Zealand, Barrett won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals and set world records on all three occasions in the Wheelchair Dash, 1 Bronze medal in Wheelchair Basketball.
  1974 International Stoke Mandeville Games, England. 1 Gold Wheelchair Sprint, 1 Bronze Wheelchair Basketball, 1 Bronze Slalom racing.
  Barrett competed in other Games while travelling through Europe after the Stoke Mandeville Games of 1974, winning a Gold medal in Disabled Sports Competition in Holland. Both he and his friend Paralympian Hugh Patterson, who travelled with him, were invited to coach Wheelchair Basketball in Basle, Switzerland.
  Following his return home from Europe, both he and Hugh Patterson were involved in a car accident. Barrett was left an incomplete quadriplegic with brain stem damage and after two years in hospital, returned to his home in Heathcote, NSW. Later he moved to the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australi
caption: Ray Barrett (right) poses with fellow New South Wales Paralympian Terry Giddy.
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