8-time Paralympic medallist Mel Fitzgerald dies of cardiovascular disease

Mel Fitzgerald, an icon of international wheelchair racing and Newfoundland pioneer of wheelchair basketball, has died.

The product of Trepassey, N.L., died of cardiovascular disease at his home in New Zealand. He was about 70 years old.

His good friend Gary Power, president of the Wheelchair Sports Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, remembers Fitzgerald as a powerhouse for adaptive sports.

“What an amazing man,” Power said Wednesday. “He was the epitome of an elite athlete. Very humble. Hard-working. A fierce competitor and a mentor to new athletes who came to our association. He was everything that you’d want to have in your membership.”

Fitzgerald represented Canada in the 1980 Paralympics in the Netherlands, where he won two gold medals, a silver and a bronze. Fitzgerald followed up that performance with a gold, two silvers and a bronze in the 1984 Paralympics.

Fitzgerald dominated wheelchair racing at a variety of distances, medalling in everything from the 100-metre sprint to the full marathon. He also represented Canada at the Pan American Games twice.

In 1982, he was named to the Order of Canada. He was inducted into the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.

“He was just a hard-working athlete,” Power said. “He put 110 per cent into everything he did. The important thing about Mel was he never wanted accolades for it. He never wanted to be recognized for it although we did try on several occasions and he’d get mad at me. He just wanted to do everything under the radar.”

He later became instrumental in building the sport of wheelchair basketball in Newfoundland and Labrador. Power said he was a dogged competitor and commanding presence on the hard court.

“We’d go away to tournaments for basketball and he was just fun to be around. But come time when the whistle blew, you’d better be on your game because if you screwed up on the court with him, you’d know it,” Power said with a laugh. “It was much safer to be on his team than opposing him, that’s for sure.”

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