Born without the lower portion of his spine, Kurt Fearnley has always been willing to have a go at everything. The youngest of five children from the small town of Carcoar, sport was always a big part of his family’s life. Ignoring his disability, he happily played in everything with his able-bodied brothers and mates.

Kurt took up wheelchair racing when he was 14 and has always had an indomitable spirit. He went from pushing his everyday wheelchair as fast as he could down the grass track at school athletics carnivals to pushing his chair the last five kilometres of the marathon at the 2004 Athens Games on a flat tyre to claim his gold medal.
 

Pain is clearly no barrier for Kurt, who has recovered from a broken sternum, nose and leg after a training accident in Switzerland, and incredibly, setting a course record at the famous New York Marathon in 2006 after hitting a pot hole at full speed and crashing to the ground.
 

At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, Kurt won two silver medals in the 800m and 5000m and a bronze medal in the 1500m after a spate of misfortune. Gold finally came his way on the very last day of competition when he defended his title in the marathon. Barely two months later, Kurt won the Chicago marathon and the New York marathon, making him the only person to win the race three times.
 

In 2009, Kurt was undefeated over the marathon distance, posting victories in Paris, London, Seoul, Sydney, Chicago and New York. He then captivated the Australian public in November when he successfully crawled the 96km Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea.