Kurt Fearnley
2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Fearnley
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Kurt Harry Fearnley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality |
 Australia
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
23 March 1981 Cowra, New South Wales |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.4 m (4 ft 7 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 50 kg (110 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Medal record
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kurt Harry Fearnley, OAM (born 23 March 1981) is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and 'crawled' the Kokoda Track. 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 and 2012 Games. Fearnley finished his Paralympic career with silver and bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
I had my Mum and Dad and my four other brothers and sisters sitting around me constantly telling me I can do anything. And then I had Carcoar which is a town of 200 people every time I see them they were telling me I can do anything and I think if you have that enough, you're going to be determined. You're told constantly from when you're a kid that everything is possible, that I don't think there's any other alternative but to start to believe that
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.
Fearnley was born on 23 March 1981 in the New South Wales town of Cowra as the youngest of five children. He was born with sacral agenesis; he is missing certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. At the time of his birth, doctors did not believe he would live longer than a week. He grew up in the small New South Wales town of Carcoar. At school, he took part in all sports including athletics and rugby league. He won his first athletics medal in the high jump. He took up wheelchair racing at the age of 14 and took it to an elite level at the age of 17. After leaving Blayney High School, he moved to Sydney to train and start a Bachelor of Human Movement degree. He lives in Newcastle and is a teacher. He is 1.4 metres (4 ft 7 in) tall and weighs 50 kilograms (110 lb).
...
Wikipedia