 Nunn at the Australian Institute of Sport on 11 November 2011 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australia |
| Born | 18 December 1958 Maffra, Victoria |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and field |
| Now coaching | Head Coach of the Australian Paralympic athletics team |
Christopher John Nunn, OAM [1] (born 18 December 1958) [2] is an Australian athletics coach. He was the head coach of the Australian athletics team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
He was born in Maffra, Victoria [3] on 18 December 1958 and lived his first eight years in the nearby town of Heyfield. [3] Nunn has a brother and two sisters and in 1976, his family moved to a farm called Leura Hill near Myponga in South Australia. [4] He attended Yankalilla Area School, [3] his interest in sport, particularly athletics, was heightened through the school's physical education teacher, Lance Rosser. [3] After leaving school, he worked as an insurance clerk for two years in Adelaide. [3] In addition, he and athletics friend Robin Gorringe coached athletics during the school holidays. [3]
In 1985, he graduated with a Bachelor of Education in physical education and biology at the South Australian College of Advanced Education, now the University of South Australia. [3] In 1990, after teaching for four years in several South Australian high schools, Chris and his new partner Vicki opened a general store in Port Vincent. [3] With wife Vicki, he has four children; he was previously married to Olympic athlete Glynis Nunn (née Saunders). [5] Chris Nunn has stated that the greatest influences on his life have been his parents, Lance Rosser and Dr John Daly, Australian athletics Olympic coach. [3]
Chris and his wife Vicki are heavily involved in local athletics. [6]
In 1981, he moved to Brisbane to be closer to his partner and athlete Glynis Nunn (née Saunders). [3] Due to the lack of coaching in Brisbane, they returned to Adelaide. [3] He won national title medals in men's 110m hurdles and decathlon. [2] He and Glynis competed at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. He competed in the men's decathlon but withdrew during the event due to injury. [3] At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, his wife Glynis won the gold medal in the women's heptathlon. In the lead up to the Games, he coached his wife in shot put and javelin. [3] He retired from competitive athletics in 1989. [3]
Nunn attended the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul as a support coach for amputee track and field athletes. [3] In December 1990, he was offered a part-time coaching position in the new Athletes with a Disability program at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). [7] In conjunction with this position, he was contracted to write the book Coaching Amputee Athletes. [8] He held this position for five years before being promoted to head coach of the program in 1996. Nunn has stated that he was the first paid athletics with a disability coach in the world. [3] He has directly coached notable Australian athletes – John Eden, Hamish MacDonald, Rodney Nugent and David Evans and advised many other leading Australian Paralympic athletes. He attended four successive Paralympic Games from 1988 to 2000 as an athletics coach and was head athletics coach at the 2000 Sydney Games. At the 2000 Games, the Australian athletics team won 35 gold, 15 silver and 16 bronze medals. [7] In November 2000, he was appointed head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Athletics program. [9] Nunn's appointment resulted in the integration of athletes with a disability into the AIS Athletics program. In 2002, he was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia for services as a coach of athletes with a disability, particularly Australian Paralympic athletes. [1]
In 2003, Athletics Australia and the AIS decided to restructure the AIS program and appointed a high performance manager. Nunn's position was downgraded to senior throws coach and he subsequently left the AIS. [10] Whilst at the AIS, Nunn played a significant role in establishing, developing and gaining acceptance of high performance programs for athletes with a disability. [3] In 2004, he established a King's Swim School in the Canberra suburb of Macgregor. [5] Nunn returned to high performance sport in 2009 when he was appointed manager of high performance, Australian Paralympic Committee. [11] He still plays an active role in junior sport as a coach at Ginninderra Tiger Athletics.
In November 2013, Nunn was appointed chef de mission for the Australian Team for the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympics. He replaced Kate McLoughlin who stepped down due to family reasons. [12]
Australia has competed in every Winter Paralympics. In 1976, the first Games, Australia's sole competitor was Ron Finneran, but he was not an official entrant. In 1980, Kyrra Grunnsund and Peter Rickards became the first official competitors, in alpine and cross-country skiing. The number of Australian athletes increased to three, five, five and six at the next four games, respectively, and all of the athletes were alpine skiers. The participation decreased to four in 1998 and climbed back up to six in 2002. Australia won its first Winter Paralympic medals in 1992, and has medalled at every games since then. All of the medals have been won in alpine skiing.
Brad Scott is a Paralympian track and field athlete from Australia competing mainly in category T37 middle-distance events. He represented Australia at the three Paralympics - 2008 to 2016 in athletics and won two silver and one bronze medals.
Paralympics Australia (PA) previously called the Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) (1998–2019) is the National Paralympic Committee in Australia for the Paralympic Games movement. It oversees the preparation and management of Australian teams that participate at the Summer Paralympics and the Winter Paralympics.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London Games.
John Desmond Eden is a leg-amputee athlete and Australian and New Zealand Paralympian.
Amy Louise Winters, OAM is an arm amputee Australian Paralympic athlete. She won seven medals at three Paralympic Games, including five gold medals.
Australia competed at the 1992 Paralympic Games in Barcelona for physically and vision-impaired athletes. Immediately after the Barcelona Games, the city of Madrid held events for athletes with an intellectual disability. The Madrid results are not included in International Paralympic Committee Historical Results Database. Australia finished 7th in the total medal count winning 76 medals. Australia competed in 13 sports and won medals in 3 sports – swimming, athletics and weightlifting. Australia finished first in the medal tally at the 1992 Paralympic Games for Persons with Mental Handicap in Madrid.
David Martin Evans, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He is an arm amputee, and his nickname was 'Clock'.
Hamish Anderson MacDonald, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete. He was born in Melbourne and lives in Canberra. He has cerebral palsy. His achievements and advocacy have made him one of Australia's most respected Paralympians.
Karl Peter Thomas Feifar, OAM was an indigenous Australian amputee athlete and Paralympic competitor.
Rodney Francis Nugent, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete.
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Scott William Goodman is a leading Australian Paralympic athletics coach and sports administrator.
Anton James Flavel, OAM is an Australian athlete with an intellectual disability. He was born in the Western Australian town of Narrogin. In his disability class he held a world record for the javelin and an Australian record in the shot put and high jump.
Ramon (Ray) Gary Epstein, is an Australian Paralympic weightlifter and powerlifting coach. He represented Australia in weightlifting at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Paralympics and was Head Coach of the Australian Paralympic powerlifting team between 2003 and 2013.
Damien Bowen is an Australian seated shot putter and seated javelin thrower. He represented Australia in athletics at the 2012 Summer Paralympics but did not medal.
Scott Peter Reardon, is an Australian Paralympic leg amputee sprinter and water skier. He won water skiing world championships in 2007 and 2009. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in athletics, winning a silver medal in the Men's 100 m T42. At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, he went one placing better to win the gold medal. Reardon has won the Men's 100 m T42 in three consecutive World Para Athletics Championships, from 2013 to 2017. He competed at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, his third games.
Disabled Wintersport Australia (DWA) was established in 1978 as the Australian Disabled Skiers Federation. Its current mission is "to promote and foster the advancement of participation by people with a disability in wintersport both in Australia and overseas". DWA is a member of the Australian Paralympic Committee. DWA plays a major role in the development of Australian athletes that compete at the Winter Paralympics.
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