The Northern Territorian represented Australia in athletics at five consecutive Paralympic Games and won two gold medals while competing with a degenerative eye condition that left him blind by the time he took part in the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.

Davies, who competed in both track and field events, was the dominant athlete in his vision-impaired class throughout most of the 1980s and held a number of Australian blind athletics records.

In many ways, Davies was a genuine pioneer of the Australian Paralympic Movement, dedicating himself to an elite level of training and preparation while based in Darwin prior to the establishment of the Northern Territory Institute of Sport.

APC chief executive Jason Hellwig, himself a Territorian who worked with Davies in the late 1980s and was his section manager on the Australian team at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, said: "Mark was a great contributor to the Australian Paralympic Movement and his sport at all levels.

"He worked hard as an administrator and trained even harder as an athlete.

"Every day he would be clear on the sessions he had to get done before and after work and every day he would organise himself and the things around him to make sure they got done.

"All of this happened at the same time as he was progressively losing his sight.

"In his era and being based in Darwin there was no Northern Territory Institute of Sport, no regular access to sports science and sports medicine support and not much local competition, but he had a focus that rose above all of that.

"It was frustrating for him that his career was concluding at the same time as support for Paralympic athletes started to rise.

"He would often get cranky at young athletes who he perceived were taking things for granted.

"In many respects, the essence of Australian sport is best characterised by Mark - no fuss, no bother, just get on with it and make it happen."

Davies's two Paralympic gold medals came at his first Paralympic Games in New York in 1984, where he won the 100 metres and pentathlon in the B2 class.

He went on to compete at the following four Games in Seoul in 1988, Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and finally in front of a home crowd at Sydney 2000 before he retired.

The APC have also passed on their condolences to Davies's family and many friends.

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