Kurt Fearnley

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).

In 2014, his autobiography 'Pushing the Limits: Life, Marathons & Kokoda' was published.

Career

In 1997, Fearnley was a member of the Western Region Academy of Sport 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. 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, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. 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.

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. 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. In November 2009, Fearnley crawled the Kokoda Trail accompanied by family and friends in support of Movember and Beyond Blue. He completed the 96-kilometre (60 mi) journey in 10 days. In 2009, he was awarded the Young Australian of the Year for New South Wales.

Fearnley is active in advocacy work, and has been an ambassador for the Don't DIS my ABILITY campaign for four years. He was also a 2010 International Day of People with Disability Ambassador. 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. He also won a gold medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games in the 1500 m T54 event.

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 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

At the 2012 London Paralympics, he was aiming to be the first person to win three consecutive marathon T54 gold medals. However he instead won a bronze medal in the Men's Marathon T54 and a silver medal in the Men's 5000 m T54.

He 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. 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.

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. 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.

At his last Paralympics in Rio, Fearnley won the silver medal in the Men's Marathon T54 and the bronze medal in the Men's 5000 m T53/54. 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. At the end of the marathon, Fearnley said "One of my biggest strengths is that I deal with discomfort better than most."

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.

He is coached by Andrew Dawes at the New South Wales Institute of Sport.

Recognition