Four-time Paralympian and World Championship Gold Medalist
Brett Andrew Stibners OAM Four-time Paralympian and World Championship Gold Medalist
Brett Andrew Stibners is from Oak Flats High School's graduating class of 1997. He was born in 1979 and grew up in Oak Flats. He always loved sport and played Cricket and Rugby League for the school teams as well as being an Illawarra Academy of Sport Hockey athlete. ‘Hockey was definitely a big thing in my life when I was growing up. I just loved running around and playing. You always dream of playing for your country’ he said in an Icare interview. He didn’t know it then, but his passion for sport and a tragic car accident would lead him to become a four-time Paralympian, World Championship Medallist and recipient of one of the highest honours in Australia being awarded the Order of Australia in 2009.
After leaving school Brett became an apprentice Electrician and continued his love of sport playing Indoor Hockey. In 2001, he achieved his lifelong goal and was selected and named as a member of the Australian men’s national indoor hockey team. He was going to play in the World Cup for Australia! Tragically, just three days after being picked for the men’s team Brett who was working in Sydney, had a micro sleep in his van and ended up on the wrong side of the road in a head on collision with a truck, breaking many of his bones including his left leg which could not be saved. ‘I was 21 years old, you think you’re invincible. I was in hospital for about three and a half months… I had to learn to walk again. I found it very, very difficult to sort of be a normal person again, because everything in my life had been taken away. Couldn’t do the simple things most people do with their mates at that age of 21 years old. Go kick a footy down the oval, go to the beach. So you’re talking depression, anxiety, I wasn’t very nice to be around at that time.’
