PROFESSIONAL

PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE FIELDS
WHEELCHAIR ATHLETES – MEN
Kurt Fearnley
Country: Australia
Age: 35
Date of Birth: March 23, 1981
Residence: Hamilton, NSW, Australia
Personal Best: 1:18:51, Boston, MA, 2011
New York City Marathon History: 2015: 5th, 1:35:21;
2014: 1st, 1:30:55; 2013: 3rd, 1:40:15; 2011: 2nd, 1:33:56;
2010: 3rd, 1:38:44; 2009: 1st, 1:35:58; 2008: 1st, 1:44:51;
2007: 1st, 1:33:58; 2006: 1st, 1:29:22 (event record);
2005: 3rd, 1:31:45
Career Highlights
2013 Virgin Money London Marathon 1st 1:31:29
2011 IPC Athletics World Championship Marathon 1st 1:31:09
2008 Beijing Paralympic Marathon 1st 1:23:17
2006 IPC Athletics World Championship Marathon 1st 1:28:17
2004 Athens Paralympic Marathon 1st 1:25:37
Fearnley is one of the most colorful—and feared—wheelchair athletes in the world. He
has captured 13 individual medals across five Paralympic Games, including a silver in the
marathon and bronze in the 5000 meters at the Rio 2016 Games where he served as
Australia’s co-captain. He has won five New York City Marathon titles, including four consecutive
from 2006 to 2009; his 1:29:22 event record from 2006 still stands. Fearnley has won
two Paralympic marathon gold medals, two IPC Athletics World Championship marathon
golds, and marathon races in London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seoul, Rome, Paris, Sydney,
and Port Elizabeth. This year, he won the Tokyo Marathon in February, and placed second
at the Rio Paralympic Marathon in September as well as the Bank of America Chicago
Marathon in October.
Two days after his New York City victory in 2009, Fearnley proposed to his longtime girlfriend,
Sheridan Rosconi on a carriage ride through Central Park; the pair wed in December
of 2010. Later that month, Fearnley crawled the grueling Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea
to raise money for charity; the 96-kilometer trek took him 11 days.
In 2014, Fearnley and his wife welcomed their first son, Harry, and the family was on hand
to greet Fearnley at the finish line of his victorious TCS New York City Marathon that
November. Born without the lower portion of his spine, Fearnley works as an ambassador
for the Day of Difference Foundation, a charity for critically injured children. His autobiography,
Pushing the Limits: Life, Marathons and Kokoda, was published in October 2014.
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