Alex Harris

Alex James Harris was an Australian Paralympic swimmer, who represented Australia at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.

Harris was born in Geelong, Victoria, and attended Western Heights College where he was a champion sportsman and school captain. In 1993, aged 18, he was involved in a traffic collision at Breamlea when the car in which Harris and several friends were travelling was struck by another vehicle. One of the cars occupants was killed, and Harris was pulled from the car by a volunteer firefighter who heard the crash. He was airlifted to The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, and was not expected to live. The accident left him with a closed head injury to his brain. Whilst undergoing physical therapy to enable him to walk again, Harris discovered that he could still swim very well.

Source: Wikipedia