They don’t come any livelier than the boy from the bush, entertaining, motivational and an all round larrikin, he represented Australia in athletics at four World Championships, three Paralympic Games, two World Cups and a Commonwealth Games.
Don Elgin was raised in the NSW town of Tocumwal. Being born without the lower portion of his left leg was no barrier for this boy who would make his first Australian team at 18 years of age, becoming a World Champion and a staggering 20 years later would represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games.
One of the longest serving scholarship holders at the Victorian Institute of Sport Don competed in the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games where he won bronze in the Pentathlon. Two years later he finished with a Silver medal at the 2002 IPC World Championships. At the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games he became a triple Paralympic medalist winning one Silver and two Bronze.
As a respected voice on sport both on and off the track, Don commentated at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and appeared on Andrew Denton’s ABC TV show Enough Rope. He was the inaugural patron of Disability Professionals Victoria. He is also a former president of Sandringham Athletics Club and former vice President of The Amputee Association of Victoria. Don is a founding board member for the Start Foundation and the inaugural ambassador for New Horizons Club.
A true leader Don was the Australian flag bearer at the 2006 World championships and went on to become the Track and Field team manager for the Australian team at London 2012 Paralympic games before making a successful return to sport to compete at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Away from the sporting arena Don is a highly sort after motivational speaker and the founder and director of StarAmp Global a boutique management Company managing some of Australia’s finest amputee talent.
