page_title: Australia at the 1988 Summer Paralympics
section_title: Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: Australia at the 1988 Summer Paralympics / Events / Athletics
caption_attribution_description: English: Nigel Parsons (L), Andrew O'Sullivan, Rodney Nugent and Adrian Lowe (R), with unknown official (L front) and coach Peter Negopontis after the team won the 4X400m A2/A4-7 relay in WR time at the Seoul Paralympics.
context_page_description: Australia competed at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, South Korea in 16 sports, winning medals in 6 sports. Gold medals were won in three sports – athletics, lawn bowls and swimming. Australia won 95 medals – 23 gold, 34 silver and 38 bronze medals. Australia finished 10th on the gold medal table and 7th on the combined medal table. Australian Confederation of Sports for the Disabled reported another medal ranking after Games with Australia being 2nd ranked in amputee sports, 8th in wheelchair sports, 11th in blind sports and 12th in cerebral palsy sports.
  Notable Australian performances included:
  Rodney Nugent, an arm amputee, won 4 gold medals and 3 bronze medals in athletics
  Elizabeth Kosmala, a wheelchair shooter, won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal
  Dual individual gold medallists included: amputee swimmer Greg Hammond, amputee swimmer Judith Young, vision impaired thrower Russell Short and wheelchair thrower Bruce Wallrodt
  Australian athletes broke eight world records.
context_section_description: Selected team of 73 athletes.
  Athletics was Australia's most successful sport at the Games winning 53 medals – 14 gold, 19 silver and 20 bronze medals. 13 athletes won gold medals. Rodney Nugent won 4 gold medals, 3 bronze medals and set a world record of 6.72m in his long jump event. Four athletes came home with two gold medals – Adrian Lowe, Nigel Parsons, Russell Short and Bruce Wallrodt.
  Deahnne McIntyre won a gold medal, two silver medals and a bronze medal, competing a week after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in a Seoul hospital. With doctors and officials telling her that she could not compete, McIntyre 'knew that she would be out there'. McIntyre came into the games as the world record holder for the Women's 200m 5-6 classification, which she eventually won the gold medal for.
  Russell Short, a blind athlete, won two gold medals and a bronze medal. Short set a world record in his classification for javelin, making a throw of 54.72m.
  Dubbed 'The Awesome Foursome', Australia's 4 × 400 m relay team set a world record time of 3 minutes 55 seconds, beating the previous record by 3.9 seconds and winning the race by 50 metres.
  Patricia Molseed set a Paralympic Record of 8.82m in the Women's Shot Put B1 competition on her first throw despite suffering from a torn back muscle. Only able to make token efforts after her back gave out, her first throw was enough to clinch the gold medal.
caption: Australia's 4x400 gold medal relay team.  Nigel Parsons (L), Andrew O'Sullivan, Rodney Nugent and Adrian Lowe (R) with coach Peter Negopontis (R front).
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