Hanging up the oars

BY DHEEPTHI NAMASIVAYAM

Nearly 20 years ago, John Maclean was told he would never walk again. And that was the good news. A day earlier, his family was told he may not even survive the collision with an eight-tonne truck that left him paralysed, waist-down.
This June will mark twenty years since that accident. But for the 42-year-old Sydneysider, who splits his time between Darlinghurst and Penrith, this day will mark two decades of numerous accolades, wonderful friendships and an incredible sporting career.
‘I spent a couple of days in a coma and three months in intensive care,’ Mr Maclean said. ‘In my hospital room, the other guys had broken their necks and would be quadriplegics.
‘So I realised that while life has changed, I was still lucky to have survived. It would be wrong to feel sorry for myself, given that other people in the room were worse off.’
And ‘post-accident’, Mr Maclean has applied this optimism to every facet of his life. His list of achievements reads like a Guinness Book of World Records: In 1998, he became the first wheelchair-bound athlete to successfully swim the English Channel. A year earlier, he completed the able-bodied cut-off times on his third attempt in the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. In 2005, he became the first physically-challenged athlete in the world to complete the open water kayaking championships. And eight years ago, he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his achievements.
But opening the John Maclean Foundation in 1998, he feels, is his greatest achievement. ‘Many people have supported my sporting endeavours,’ he said. ‘[But] giving back to the community is worth more than anything that’s happened to me in my life.’
The Foundation enables physically challenged children to pursue their ambitions by providing grants to access musical instruments, specialised wheelchairs and any resources they require to achieve their goals.
Mr Maclean also endured significant setbacks during his sporting career. At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, he crashed in the final of the 1500m race. This devastation led to a period of soul-searching. ‘For me, [during this time], I looked back on my past ‘ mum committed suicide and I spent time in a foster home,’ Mr Maclean said. ‘I guess I was trying to figure out where I fit in the bigger picture.’
And this bigger picture surely includes the Beijing Olympics where Mr Maclean will be chasing his last dream ‘ achieving gold. He is currently training at Canberra in adaptive rowing, a modified version of rowing catering to physically challenged competitors. But come the end of August, he will be hanging up his oars.
‘It’s time to move in a different direction,’ he said. ‘I’m looking to do a full-time mentoring role for an IT company, I’ll be putting a new book out and look for more opportunities to speak out about my experiences.’
With his gamut of achievements, these opportunities involve lobbying politicians to improve the perception of being physically challenged. ‘My whole driving theme after the accident was to be seen as ‘equal’,’ he said.
‘Then having the foundation ‘ the whole drive is to delete the word ‘disability’ because it has such a negative effect to me as an individual,’ he said, adding that terms like ‘special needs’ or ‘challenged’ are much more effective.
Twenty years on, Mr Maclean still believes the accident was a blessing in disguise. ‘It gave me a fulfilment in life and opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise,’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t have thought of swimming the English Channel,’ he added. ‘I would have probably played first grade football and had a family and that’s it.’