Eve Rimmer

The role of trailblazing Para-athlete and disability rights advocate Eve Rimmer in helping usher in a greater period of acceptance for disability sport cannot be understated.

During an outstanding international career, the fiercely determined mother-of-two snared 14 Paralympic medals (11 in athletics) including eight gold medals and such was her status, at the height of her success she was a household name in New Zealand.

Born Eva Davies in Whanganui in 1937 and raised one of four siblings in Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty she showed great natural athletic ability as a youngster. Setting the school long jump record and also starring as a sprint champion, Eve, as she was better known, was ear-marked as an athlete of some promise.

However, at the age of 15 her life was to turn upside down following a serious car crash. On a way to a dance with three friends the car she was travelling in skidded and rolled near a bridge over the Whakatane River. Pinned on her ...