He’s a black belt. A marathoner. A multi-sport Para athlete.
For nearly six decades, John Marrable has been defying the odds and, at 68 years old, the Dunedin-based para table tennis player is chasing a dream that’s eluded him his entire sporting life: the Paralympic Games.
Marrable was just 10 years old in 1967 when he became a paraplegic after falling from a cliff while on a family holiday in Scotland. He remembers standing up and walking after the fall but within moments, he lost all feeling in his legs.
"I said, 'Mum, my legs have gone to sleep. I need to get up and run around'. And she said, 'No, you stay where you are'," Marrable recalls.
His recovery took place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the UK known as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. It was there Marrable discovered sport, and the mantra of movement that has shaped his life: The fitter you are, the better your quality of life.
That philosophy has taken him everywhere from swimming to wheelchair basketball, athletics to martial arts. Marrable became the first paraplegic in New Zealand to complete a marathon and later earned his black belt in karate. But it’s table tennis where he's always returned and now, where he’s mounting a comeback.
"I just love competing. I love pushing myself," he says. "If someone says I can’t do something, I’ve got to prove them wrong."
After more than a decade away from the international stage, Marrable has been selected in the Para Sport Collective, a programme designed to support para athletes on the verge of high-performance careers. He’s the oldest athlete in their most recent intake.
Now, he’s preparing for the Oceania Championships and, potentially, a shot at the Paralympics.
"People always say, 'You’re getting too old now'. But age is just a number. I'd love to think I can."
John Marrable’s still taking his shot, he’s not done proving people wrong.
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