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| STORIES FROM OUR PEOPLE | 
| Dave MacCalman
MNZM | Dave has been involved in sport most of his life.
He
came across basketball early in his life and played several years for a
top Wellington club (1979 National Champions) and the Brisbane Bullets
in the inaugural year of the Australian National Basketball
League.
Dave fulfilled his dream of attending a
University in California on a basketball scholarship but sadly,
sustained a spinal cord injury diving into a river on a hot summer
day.
Since then he has competed and won many wheelchair
events ranging from international wheelchair marathons to Paralympic
and World pentathlons. He won two Gold Medals at the 2000 Sydney
Paralympics and still holds the World Record for Quadriplegic
Pentathlon.
Dave has coached internationally in wheelchair
basketball and wheelchair rugby and coached National League basketball
for over 25 years. In 2000, he was awarded a MNZM for his services to
disability sport. Dave recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Sport
Management and is employed by Sport Waikato and the Halberg Trust as
Sport Opportunity Adviser.
Now retired from competitive sport
Dave continues to be active pushing and swimming as often as time
allows. The importance of being physically active is crucial to Dave
maintaining his mobility and independence.
Through his work at
Sport Waikato he believes that all people in the greater Waikato region
should have access to a wide range of active living and sport
opportunities for the benefit of their health and wellbeing.
A
hydrotherapy pool in Hamilton City will benefit a wide range of groups
and individuals within the greater Waikato community. Hydrotherapy has
the potential to benefit sports people in rehabilitation from injury,
to maximize other sports science techniques, and to aid in recovery
from physical activity.
It is also known that hydrotherapy can
have holistic benefits when applied in a sports context. It allows
recovery and rehabilitation in a non-stressful environment to treat the
whole athlete, rather than just the location of the injury or fatigue.
The
location of a hydrotherapy facility at Waterworld would also
potentially make it accessible to people of all ages and levels of
sport – becoming a community facility, rather than a benefit
available exclusively to elite athletes.
Dave believes the
potential benefits of hydrotherapy are immense for all people of the
greater Waikato region, both in sport and active living.
For a PDF download of this story, click here
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