Roy Daniell
Australian Paralympic athlete
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roy Daniell (born 11 April 1965) is an Australian runner with a vision impairment, who has won two medals at three Paralympics.
Australia2000 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Daniell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 11 April 1965 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Personal
Daniell was born on 11 April 1965 in the Victorian town of Seymour and lives in Canberra.[1][2] He has a genetic condition that causes peripheral vision. Everything in his direct line of sight is permanently blocked by a fuzzy test pattern.[1][3] He began losing his sight at the age of ten and by the age of fifteen, he effectively could not read.[3] He attended Canberra Grammar School where he was a competitive sprinter and he participated in rowing at national schoolboy competitions.[3]
He is a physiotherapist in Canberra and has a post graduate Diploma in Manipulative Physiotherapy and a master's degree in Pain Management.[4] He is married and has one son and one daughter.[4]
Career
Daniell did not think of himself as disabled until he heard that Sydney was hosting the Paralympics; he began training in 1997 after his eye doctor confirmed that he would be able to qualify for the games.[5] He was originally a triathlete but switched to running after colliding with parked cars and swimming poorly.[4] He won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Men's Marathon T13 event.[6] He had an Australian Institute of Sport athletics scholarship from 2001 to 2002.[7] At the 2004 Athens Games he won a silver medal in the men's marathon T13 event.[6] In Sydney and Athens he ran without a race guide. He finished 13th in the men's marathon T12 at the 2008 Beijing Games with race guides Julien Wicks and Dennis Fitzgerald.[6][8][9][10] He retired from competition after the 2008 games to spend more time with his family.[11]