Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Kurt Harry Fearnley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Cowra, New South Wales, Australia | 23 March 1981|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 50 kg (110 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | www | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Kurt Harry Fearnley, AO PLY [1] [2] (born 23 March 1981) is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals (three gold, seven silver and three bronze). [3] [4] [5] He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Fearnley was born on 23 March 1981 in Cowra, New South Wales as the youngest of five children. [6] [7] He was born with sacral agenesis; he is missing certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. [8] At the time of his birth, doctors did not believe he would live longer than a week. [8] He grew up in Carcoar. [8] At school, he took part in all sports, including athletics and rugby league. [8] He won his first athletics medal in the long jump. [7] [8] He took up wheelchair racing at the age of 14 and took it to an elite level at the age of 17.
The town had got together and raised $10,000 and they bought the chair and they ... paid for the trip and they said if he needs anything else you know we're going to make sure that he ... gets that opportunity. So it's a town of 200 people within a week had had 10 grand sitting there, so it was it's nice now that I know that Carcoar have this ... bond I guess, or they know that they're the reason that I'm here.
Kurt Fearnley [7]
After leaving Blayney High School, he moved to Sydney to train and start a Bachelor of Human Movement degree. [9] He lives in Newcastle and is a teacher. [10] He is 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) tall and weighs 50 kilograms (110 lb). [10]
In 2010, Fearnley married Sheridan Rosconi at Glenrock Lagoon. Fearnley and Rosconi met while studying at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, New South Wales. [11] Their first son, Harry, was born in 2013 with a second child, a daughter Emilia born in 2017. [12]
In 2014, his autobiography, Pushing the Limits: Life, Marathons & Kokoda, was published. [13]
In 1997, Fearnley was a member of the Western Region Academy of Sport [14] and by the 2000 Sydney Paralympics was representing Australia. At these Games, Fearnley won two silver medals in the 800 m and 4×100 m relay events. [15] He also represented his country in the demonstration sport of Men's 1500 m wheelchair, where he came 4th. He went to the 2002 IPC Athletics World Championships in Birmingham, England and finished 7th in both the 400 m and 800 m T54 events.
At the 2004 Olympic Games, he finished 5th in the demonstration sport of Men's 1500 m wheelchair. Following this he won two gold medals in the 5000 m T54 and marathon T54 events at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, [15] for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. [2] At the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen, Netherlands, he won three gold medals and one bronze medal. Participating in his third Paralympics in Beijing, he won a gold medal in the marathon T54, two silver medals in the 800 m T54 and 5000 m T54 events and a bronze medal in the 1500 m T54 event. [15]
On 30 September 2009, Fearnley conducted a training climb of Sydney's Centrepoint Tower's 1,504 fire stairs in 20 minutes, taking them two at a time. While far short of the 6m 52s record for the annual charity climb (Sydney Tower Run-up), the Tower's manager said this was quicker than the 25 minutes required by most able-bodied people. [16] In 2009, he won his fourth New York City Marathon title, his third consecutive title in the Chicago Marathon and victories in Seoul, Paris, London and Sydney. [17] In November 2009, Fearnley crawled the Kokoda Trail accompanied by family and friends in support of Movember and Beyond Blue. [18] He completed the 96-kilometre (60 mi) journey [19] in 10 days. [8] In 2009, he was awarded the Young Australian of the Year for New South Wales. [20]
Fearnley is active in advocacy work, and has been an ambassador for the Don't DIS my ABILITY [21] campaign for four years. He was also a 2010 International Day of People with Disability Ambassador. [22] In 2010, Fearnley competed again in the New York marathon, which he came in third. In the same year his image was featured on the medal for the 2010 Blackmores Sydney Running Festival. [23] He also won a gold medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games in the 1500 m T54 event. [9]
In early 2011 at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, he won the marathon. Later in the year, Fearnley competed in the 2011 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. [24]
At the 2012 London Paralympics, he was aiming to be the first person to win three consecutive marathon T54 gold medals. [25] However, he instead won a bronze medal in the Men's Marathon T54 and a silver medal in the Men's 5000 m T54. [15]
Fearnley won a bronze medal in the 1500 m T54 at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games; he had been fighting a virus in the days before the event. [26] In November 2014, he won his fifth New York Marathon men's wheelchair event. After the competition, he stated "That was one of the toughest races of my life" due to the high winds that nearly forced the cancellation of the wheelchair event. [27]
At the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, he finished fourth in the Men's 5000 m T54 and did not progress to the final of the Men's 1500 m T54. He left Doha immediately to compete in the New York Marathon where he finished fifth after crashing at the 12-mile mark. [28] [29] On Australia Day 2016, he won the Oz Day 10K Wheelchair Road Race for the tenth time joining Louise Sauvage as a ten-time winner of this prestigious wheelchair road race. [30]
Throughout 2015, Fearnley co-established and co-hosted the groundbreaking live online “All Sports Show” in his home town of Newcastle and polished his skills front of the camera with fellow co-hosts sports administrator Ivan Spyrdz, distinguished journalist Brett Keeble and local sports star and former NRL player Darren Forward.
At his last Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Fearnley won the silver medal in the Men's Marathon T54 and the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 m T53/54. [5] Fearnley indicated he will race in the wheelchair marathon at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and continue to race marathons on the international circuit. [4] At the end of the marathon, Fearnley said: "One of my biggest strengths is that I deal with discomfort better than most." [4]
At the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London, England, Fearnley finished sixth in both the Men's 1500 m and 5000 m T54 events. [31]
At the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Fearnley won the gold medal in the Men's Marathon T54 and silver in the Men's 1500 T54. He was given the honour of the flag bearer at the closing ceremony. [32]
Fearnley was coached by Andrew Dawes at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. [9]
In 2020 Fearnley continued his media career, joining the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to host a long form television interview program Kurt Fearnley's One Plus One . [33]
After his retirement, Fearnley has become involved in several media projects including:
Fearnley's extensive experience in disability sport has led him to be appointed to several boards.
Eliza Stankovic-Mowle is an Australian wheelchair racer, who competed at Paralympic and Olympic Games. She survived meningococcal disease and plays a major role in improving the Australian community's awareness of the disease.
Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
David Russell Weir is a British Paralympic wheelchair athlete. He has won a total of six gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, and has won the London Marathon on eight occasions. He was born with a spinal cord transection that left him unable to use his legs.
Richard Andrew Colman is an Australian Paralympic athlete, competing mainly in category T53 sprint events. He was born with spina bifida. He represented Australia at the four Paralympics - 2004 to 2016.
Amanda McGrory is an American wheelchair athlete.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio, 2020 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Paralympics, winning two gold, four silver and two bronze medals. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Angela Ballard is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.
Richard Nicholson is an Australian Paralympic powerlifter and athlete. He has competed at five successive Paralympic Games from the 1996 to 2012 Summer Paralympics. At the 2000 Games, he won a silver medal in the powerlifting Men's Up to 60 kg event. In athletics, at the 2004 Athens Paralympics he won a silver medal in the Men's 4 × 100 m T53–54 event and at the 2012 London Paralympics a bronze medal in the Men's 4 × 400 m T53–54 event.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympic athlete from Switzerland competing in category T54 wheelchair racing events. Hug, nicknamed 'The Silver Bullet', has competed in four Summer Paralympic Games for Switzerland, winning two bronze medals in his first Games in Athens in 2004. In 2010 he set four world records in four days, and at the 2011 World Championships he won a gold in the 10,000 metres and four silver medals, losing the gold in three events to long term rival David Weir. This rivalry continued into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where Hug won two silvers, in the 800m and the marathon. In the 2013 World Championships Hug dominated the field, winning five golds and a silver. During the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Hug was one of the most consistent competitors in the T54 class, winning two golds, in the 800m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 5000m.
Paul Wiggins is an Australian wheelchair racer.
Jake Lappin is an Australian para-athlete competing as a wheelchair racer. He represented Australia at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Rheed McCracken is an Australian Paralympic athletics competitor. He named the 2012 Junior Athlete of the Year as part of the Australian Paralympian of the Year Awards. He represented Australia at the 2012 London Paralympics, 2016 Rio Paralympics, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics, where he won three silver and three bronze medals.
Nathenial "Nath" Arkley is an Australian Paralympic track and field athlete. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics, he won a bronze medal.
Men's marathon races for wheelchair athletes at the 2004 Summer Paralympics followed a course from Marathon to the Panathinaiko Stadium, and started at 08:00 on 26 September. Events were held in three wheelchair disability classes, together with two classes of visually impaired athletes.
Andrew John Dawes OAM is an Australian seven time Paralympic wheelchair coach. He has coached Australian athletes to 19 gold medals at Paralympic Games. Including Louise Sauvage, Kurt Fearnley and Greg Smith. He currently is the New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Wheelchair Track and Road head coach.
Samuel Harrison Carter is a Paralympic athlete, who competes in 100m, 200m, 400m T54 events. He has represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Luke Bailey is an Australian wheelchair racer. He represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
John Charles Smith, known professionally as JohnBoy Smith, is a British parathlete and wheelchair racer of Romany descent who competes in the T54 category sprint events.
Samuel "Sam" Rizzo is an Australian Paralympic athletics competitor. He competed at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
{{cite news}}
: |author=
has generic name (help)