Victor Salvemini
Victor Salvemini was an Australian Paralympic athlete from Western Australia. As a wheelchair athlete, he competed in several sports including archery, basketball and track sprinting in the 1970s. A paraplegic, he lost the use of both his legs after a car accident in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1961 when he was 14 years old.
Early life and athletic career
Salvemini was the son of Italian migrants to Western Australia. He was introduced to wheelchair sport at the Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital in Shenton Park following his accident.Paralympic Games
Salvemini competed in two Paralympic Games. At the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany he competed in archery, athletics and wheelchair basketball team|wheelchair basketball]. In the 100 metres Para-Athletics event, he placed 13th. In archery, he finished 13th in the Men's Short Western Round Open and eighth in the Men's Short Western Round Team Open. The wheelchair basketball team finished eighth. He had been selected for the 1972 Heidelberg Games following his participation in the 1972 National Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Games in Sydney in archery and athletics.At the 1976 Summer Paralympics in Toronto, he competed in wheelchair basketball as a forward. The team finished tenth out of 21 teams.
Commonwealth Paraplegic Games
Salvemini competed and medalled in two Commonwealth Paraplegic Games. At the 1970 Edinburgh Games, he won silver in archery. At the 1974 Dunedin Games, he won bronze in archery.FESPIC Games
Salvemini competed at the 1977 Far East and South Pacific Games for the Disabled in Sydney in wheelchair basketball.National Archery Championships
Salvemini competed in several events in the National Archery Championships held in Perth in 1973.Personal life
Salvemini trained as a wood turner and ran his own wood-turning business. He was a wooden model boat builder, has volunteered at Fremantle Hospital, and was a distributor for the Fremantle Gazette newspaper.In October 1974 Salvemini married Jaquie Lloyd.
He has participated in seven international work skills competitions – the Abilympics: Japan 1981; Hong Kong 1991; Perth 1995; Prague 2000; Japan 2007 ; Seoul 2011. He died on 15 January 2020, aged 73.