Houlison would go to watch the “lunatics playing basketball” at the rehab centre and soon found himself on the court. 

“What got me back into sport was when I started playing wheelchair basketball and I saw the smiles on Mum’s and Dad’s faces again,” he told staff at Mudgee Recycling this week. 

“It was about bringing joy and pride back into my family.” 

Competing at Sydney Kings level, Houlison travelled Australia and began to consider a tilt at the Beijing Paralympics. 

But it was rowing, not basketball that would take him to the heights of world sport. 

“To be out on the lake, rowing around with not a wheelchair in sight quite excited me,’ he said. 

Houlison went on to win the NSW and Australian titles but encountered a stumbling block when two years out from Beijing, he set his sights on paralympic selection.  With only one spot available for an Australian in his category, this required him to beat the reigning world champion. 

After narrowly missing selection, he went to Beijing at a first reserve, returning to a full time scholarship at the Australian Institute of Sport. 

Four years after taking up rowing, he won his first world championship medal, a bronze in 2009. 

Houlison, a rugby league player before his accident, said teamwork and commitment were the keys to any sport. 

“Even when you are sitting in a single scull boat, you have a coach and a support network,” he said.   “And you can’t not train and then be on the podium.” 

Now retired from rowing, Houlison regularly speaks to groups about occupational health and safety and to encourage participation and inclusion in sport, but he does not consider himself to be “inspirational”. 

“I’m only doing what a everyone else would do in the same situation,’ he said. 

Houlison will watch the Rio Olympics from his farm at Hartley, taking a special interest in his successor, Erik Horrie, who is considered a gold medal favourite. 

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