Bruce Oliver Thwaite (2 December 1923 – 21 September 1991) was an Australian Paralympic competitor. During World War II, he sustained a spinal injury when he landed on a tree after parachuting from a bomber plane over Germany. He was treated at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

He first represented Australia at the 1957 International Stoke Mandeville Games in archery. At the 1962 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Perth, he won gold medals in the Men's Swimming 50 m Crawl Class B and Men's Swimming 50 m Breaststroke Class B events, a silver medal in the Weightlifting Class B Middleweight event and a bronze medal in the Men's Precision Archery event. He competed at the 1964 Tokyo Paralympics in swimming and weightlifting. He then took up lawn bowls. At the 1974 Commonwealth Paraplegic Games in Dunedin, he won a gold medal in the Men's Singles event and a silver medal in the Men's Pairs event. At the 1976 Toronto Games, he teamed with Eric Magennis to win the gold medal in the Men's Pairs wh event. The first New South Wales Paraplegic Sports Club meeting was held in his jewellery shop in the Sydney suburb of Concord.

Bruce Thwaite

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Paralympic lawn bowls players for Australia

Male Paralympic swimmers for Australia

Paralympic weightlifters for Australia

Swimmers at the 1964 Summer Paralympics

Weightlifters at the 1964 Summer Paralympics

Lawn bowls players at the 1976 Summer Paralympics

Paralympic gold medalists for Australia

Wheelchair category Paralympic competitors

Sportspeople from Sydney

1923 births

1991 deaths

Medalists at the 1976 Summer Paralympics

Australian male bowls players

Paralympic medalists in lawn bowls

Australian male swimmers

20th-century Australian people

Sportsmen from New South Wales

Bruce Thwaite