| Summary |
Bruno Moretti, born in Ivanhoe, Vic., speaks about being born with a disability; details of school life; his early wheelchair; mobility as a primary school child; his lifelong love of sport, his involvement with the Geelong Football Club; his long term hospitalization in Mt Eliza, Frankston, and at the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg; Geoff Luke; his involvement in sport, basketball, table tennis; his schooling to Junior Certificate level; getting an apprenticeship with Remington Rand; changing jobs to work for the Preston City Council; problems that people with disabilities encountered with regard to employment conditions; being made redundant; learning to cope with discrimination; playing Basketball at Albert Park in the 1960s and 70s, learning how to coach able-bodied athletes; the Rome Paralympic Games (1960), satisfying the selection strategy, competing in four events to be selected; fundraising; his first experience of travel overseas and plane travel; training activities prior to competing in Rome; accommodation in the Olympic Village, the Opening ceremony; his desire to go and play in America, Pan Am Jets; establishing his own team and competition (1974), his role in getting the Australian team from B grade to A grade when he took over the national team (1983); explanation for Western Australia's dominance in basketball; the Harlem Globetrotters.
Moretti discusses his determination to be involved in more international competition; his strengths as an athlete, balance, speed and agility in the chair; available chair technologies and the difference they made to competitiveness; Commonwealth Games, Perth (1962), winning four gold medals; early weightlifting techniques; a gold medal in the wheelchair slalom event in Israel (1968), conditions at the Israel games; the Jamaican Commonwealth Games experience (1966); the beginnings of his coaching career, his coaching philosophies and strengths as a coach; international coaching responsibilities (1983), coaching the national team for the Gold Cup competition in Canada; Stoke Mandeville Games (1984); coaching highlights and frustrations; coaching quad rugby (murder ball(1992)); his involvement in Paravics (1962), the start of wheelchair sport in Victoria; the impact of the International Year of the Disabled Person (1981); attending the closing ceremony at the Sydney Games (2000); the changing perceptions of athletes with disabilities in the broader community; playing Lawn Bowls; people that should be acknowledged for developing wheelchair sports in Australia, the importance of volunteers; how to improve the administration of sport for people with disabilities.
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