Frank Ponta
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| Full name | Francis Ettore Ponta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 8 November 1935 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 1 June 2011 (aged 75) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Francis Ettore Ponta (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.