Frank Ponta

Frank Ponta

Personal information
Full name	Francis Ettore Ponta
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1935-11-08)8 November 1935
Died	1 June 2011(2011-06-01) (aged 75)
Medal record Men's athletics Paralympic Games 1960 Rome Precision Javelin Wheelchair fencing Stoke Mandeville Games 1957 Stoke Mandeville Foil Novice team Paralympic Games 1960 Rome Foil Novice Individual Paralympic swimming Paralympic Games 1964 Tokyo 25 m freestyle 1968 Tel Aviv 25 m backstroke

Francis Ettore Ponta^[1] (8 November 1935 – 1 June 2011) was an Australian Paralympic competitor and coach. He competed in several sports including basketball, pentathlon, swimming and fencing. A paraplegic, he lost the use of both his legs after a tumour was removed from his spinal column when he was a teenager. Ponta was a member of Australia's first national wheelchair basketball team, and is credited with expanding the sport of wheelchair basketball in Western Australia. At the end of his competitive career, he became a coach, working with athletes such as Louise Sauvage, Priya Cooper, Madison de Rozario, Bruce Wallrodt and Bryan Stitfall. He died on 1 June 2011 at the age of 75 after a long illness.