Evan O'Hanlon

Evan O'Hanlon

2016 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of O'Hanlon
Personal information
Full name Evan George O'Hanlon
Nationality  Australia
Born (1988-05-04) 4 May 1988
Sydney, New South Wales
Height 183 cm (72 in)
Weight 78 kg (172 lb)
Website evanohanlon.com
Medal record
Men's paralympic athletics
Representing  Australia
Paralympic Games
2008 Beijing 100 m T38
2008 Beijing 200 m T38
2008 Beijing 4 x 100 m T35–38
2012 London 100 m T38
2012 London 200 m T38
2016 Rio de Janeiro 100 m T38
IPC World Championships
2006 Assen 4 x 100 m T35–38
2006 Assen 4 x 400 m T35–38
2011 Christchurch 100 m T38
2011 Christchurch 200 m T38
2013 Lyon 100 m T38
2013 Lyon 200 m T38
2013 Lyon 400 m T38
2011 Christchurch 400 m T38
2006 Assen 200 m T38
2011 Christchurch 4 x 100 m T35–38

Evan George O'Hanlon, OAM[1] (born 4 May 1988) is an Australian Paralympic athlete, who competes mainly in category T38 sprint events. He has won five gold medals at two Paralympic Games – 2008 Beijing and 2012 London. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.[2]

Personal

O'Hanlon was born on 4 May 1988 in Sydney. He is 183 centimetres (6.00 ft) tall and weighs 78 kilograms (172 lb). He has cerebral palsy due to a prenatal stroke.[3][4] He attended St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. He has five sisters, one of whom is Elsa O'Hanlon who rowed for Australia's national team and won the World University lightweight sculling Championship in Trakai, Lithuania in 2006.[5] His father Terry O'Hanlon,[3] who is heavily involved with rowing in Australia,[3][6] has represented Australia on the international level. His mother has also represented Australia as a member of a national rowing squad.[4] As of October 2011, he is working on a degree in landscape architecture.[4] He is not married, and resides in Canberra and Sydney.[3] He is married to Zuzana Schindlerova, a Czech Republic race walker. [7]

Competitive athletics

A medal won by O'Hanlon at the 2008 Summer Paralympics on display at the Australian Institute of Sport

O'Hanlon mainly competes in category T38 sprint events.[8] Before the start of his last year of high school, he competed only against able bodied athletes.[3] In 2005, New South Wales Paralympic Talent Search Co-ordinator Amy Winters, herself a former Paralympian, recruited him to participate in Paralympic sport.[3] That year, he represented Australia for the first time.[9] In December, he moved to Canberra and started training full-time with Irina Dvoskina.[3]

As of October 2011, he is coached by Irina Dvoskina, and has a scholarship from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). When competing on the club level, he represents UTS North. At the age of nineteen, his records made him the fastest male cerebral palsy competitor in the world.[3] During his career, he has had to deal with painful shin splits.[9]

He competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. There he won three gold medals in the men's 100 metres – T38, men's 200 m – T38 and men's 4 x 100 metre relay – T35–38 events, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia.[1] He won all of these events in World Record times,[8] in the T38 100 m event with a time of 10.96 and in T38 200 m event with a time of 21.98.[3] His time of 10.96 was the first time a male cerebral palsy athlete had a sub 11 second record time.[4] Personal best times outside the Paralympics include a time of 51.08 in the T38 400 m event, a record he set in Brisbane, and a distance of 6.11 metres (20.0 ft) in the T38 long jump event that he set in Canberra.[3]

O'Hanlon training at AIS in 2012

In 2005, he competed at the German Nationals and European Championships in the 100 m and 200 m events at his first overseas competition.[10] At the IPC Athletics World Championships in 2006, he competed in the T38 100 m, but did not finish; finished third in the T38 200 m event; and won two gold medals in the 4x100 m relay and 4x400 m relay events.[3] At the Australian Championships, he finished first in the T38 100 m and T38 200 m events in 2006, 2007 and 2008.[3] His 2006 title was his first national one, when he won the T38 100 m event.[4] At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, he won gold medals in the 100 m and 200 events,[11][12] a silver medal in the 400 m event, and a bronze in the 4x100 m relay event. He finished fourth in the men's long jump event. His two gold medals at the event counted for half the total men's Australian gold medal count.[11]

In 2009 and 2010, he took time off from Paralympic athletics to compete in Australia's able-bodied domestic athletics season. He has a personal goal of being able to beat able-bodied athletes.[4][9] One of his early goals was to beat the times of fellow Paralympian athlete Tim Sullivan. He accomplished this, and was on a sprint team with Sullivan that won a Paralympic gold medal in the 4x100 m event in Beijing.[9]

As of 2011, he is ranked first in the world.[10] In 2011, he was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder training and based in Canberra.[13]

At the 2012 London Games, he repeated his Beijing success in winning the Men's 100 m and 200 m T38 events.[8] He was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the London games.[14]

Competing at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, he won gold medals in the Men's 100 m, 200 m and 400 m T38 events. .[15][16][17] He competed at the Championships just weeks after being hospitalized with viral meningitis.[17] O'Hanlon was forced to withdraw from the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha due to a stess fracture in his back.[18]

At the 2016 Rio Paralympics he won the silver medal in the Men's 100 m T38 in a time of 10.98.[19] He announced his retirement immediately after the event.[7]

Other sports

O'Hanlon has participated in rugby union. His involvement as a player ended because of repeated injuries.[9] He has also competed in rowing.[10]

Recognition

O'Hanlon interviewed after receiving the award for 2012 Male Athlete of the Year at the Australian Paralympian of the Year ceremony

O'Hanlon was AIS Junior Athlete of the Year in 2008, and was also named Athletics Australia's 2008 Athlete of the Year – Male AWD. Cleo magazine named him as a finalist in its 2008 Bachelor of the Year contest.[4] In 2011, he was nominated for The Age's Sport Performer Award in the Performer with a Disability category.[20] In 2011, he received a Sport Achievement Award from the Australian Institute of Sport.[21] O'Hanlon was a finalist for the 2012 Australian Paralympian of the Year.[22] In November 2013, he was named Athletics Australia Male Para-Athlete of the Year.[23] In 2014, he was inducted into the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre Path of Champions.[24]

References

  1. 1 2 "Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM)". ABC News. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  2. ↑ "Australian Paralympic Athletics Team announced". Australian Paralympic Committee News, 2 August 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "O'Hanlon, Evan". Athletics Australia. Archived from the original on 16 October 2009. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "AIS Athletics – Evan O'Hanlon". Australian Institute of Sport. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  5. ↑ Ross, Bruce (August 2006). "World champion rowers use ScrumTruk for strength training". MyoQuip. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "ROMS Terry O'Hanlon". Rowing Australia. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  7. 1 2 "Rio 2016: Five-time champion Evan O'Hanlon retires after winning Paralympics silver". ABC News. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 Results for Evan O'Hanlon from the International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Evan O'Hanlon". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  10. 1 2 3 "Evan O'Hanlon (Athletics)" (PDF). Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  11. 1 2 Terrano, Marc (1 February 2011). "Paralympian's major medal haul". Northern Times. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  12. ↑ "Aussie Gold: Day 3. IPC Worlds, Evan O'Hanlon.". Runners Tribe. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
  13. ↑ Dutton, Chris (26 November 2011). "Canberrans Chase Olympic Dreams". Canberra Times. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. pp. 10–12. |section= ignored (help)
  14. ↑ "O'Hanlon honoured to carry flag". ABC News. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
  15. ↑ "IPC13: O'Hanlon wins the Australian Flame their first GOLD". Athletics Australia News. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  16. ↑ "Evan O'Hanlon claims second gold medal at the IPC World Athletics Championships". News Limited Network. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  17. 1 2 "IPC13: O'Hanlon and Reardon win GOLD for Australian Flame". Athletics Australia News. 27 July 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  18. ↑ "Doha News". Athletics Australia News. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  19. ↑ "Evan O'Hanlon". Rio Paralympics Official site. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  20. ↑ "2011 Nominees". Melbourne, Victoria: Sport Performer Awards. 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  21. ↑ "Sport Achievement Awards". Australian Institute of Sport. 2011. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  22. ↑ "Freney favourite to win top Paralympian". Australian Associated Press. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  23. ↑ "Mickle, Tallent win big at awards". Athletics Australia News. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  24. ↑ "2014 Induction Ceremony". Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre website. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
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