Hi, I'm Gus Wallin and this is not an overnight success brought to you by sure and partners financial services
This is a podcast where we sit down with some very successful people from the world of business
Entertainment and sport and talk about their life's journey and what got them to the point that they're in today
Now in today's episode we are chatting with gold medal winning athlete Kurt Fearnley
Kurt is a three-time Paralympic gold medalist and two-time
Commonwealth Games gold medalist. He has won over 40 marathons including New York, Chicago and London
And he's even crawled the Kokoda track. He is a sensation
Kurt was born without the lower portion of his spine
He grew up in a small country town and he paved his way to being one of the best athletes on the planet
He has a unique perspective on what it takes the determination and dedication to be successful in this chat
We speak a lot about his disability and how it is viewed in Australia and Kurt shares some cracking stories about his life
Including one time when he met the Queen Kurt makes you feel like you can take anything on as for all these podcasts sure and
Partners have generously donated
$10,000 to the charity of choice of each of our guests
We discuss who that money goes to in the chat
The executive producer of this podcast is Keisha Pettit with production assistance from Kelly Stubbs and Brittany Hughes
Let's get into our chat with Kurt Fearnley
Kurt how are you mate? Good to see you. Mate I'm loving life actually, you know
She's she's been a challenging couple of years, but I've got to a space where I just life is just brilliant
I'm so glad to hear that because you're much loved mate. So it's good to hear that you're that you're going
Well, what were you like as a kid? A rap bag. Well, no, I
Reckon I do remember all of my aunties and we were a big family
My dad was one of ten kids and they always just used to call me bold
I was bold mate the kid crawling around that would find something to jump off, you know
That was always looking for an adventure. Yeah, so rather than rap bag. I would just say I was bold
I love that. So you say you had a lot of people around you. What was the family makeup family?
I was one of five kids, but we were the we were probably the smallest family within my community of car call
Lots of uncles uncles live next door 100 meters down the road 500 meters down the road and
They all had around six kids
so we just grew up in each other's pockets my grandma lived with me until she passed when I was about four and
It's funny, you know, like when I think about pivotal people in my life
I still think about my grandma and she just represents this real
Unconditional love, you know and because granny lived with us that meant all of her sons and daughters would always be coming through our house
and it was it was just a lot of people around a lot of big personalities and a lot of real kind of
Adventurous people mate. We weren't a very financial family, but we had a huge about what 10 acres or so
We had half a dozen cows that in a milker as well
So we would milk the cow every morning they'd bring in a bucket of milk
we had an outside dunny and we had fruit trees and veggies and I remember every weekend a lot of the families would come together and
we'd go blackberry picking and
like rabbiting and blackberry picking and fishing and you'd come home with buckets full of blackberries and
Granny would cook up these blackberry pies and you'd smell them, you know
You'd smell them as you it felt like I grew up in the 50s
It was the 80s, but it was all done through a wood fire inside a wood stove in no hot water in the house
It with the hot water you'd have to go out into the veranda and then go into the bathroom
So it was a cold run to get to the hot water
But I think in that I don't know whether you call it hardship or whatever you call it in that kind of way that I grew
Up you just learned to appreciate everything
You know you learned to go out for eight hours and pick
Buckets worth of blackberries because you came home to this beautiful warm house that
Granny would make the most beautiful thing that had you know whipped cream that she had taken off the top of the milk that people
Had brought in that day. It was a hundred percent hillbilly. It was a real
Real wild west kind of youth. I love it. I just I want to go there with you right now, man
I want to be eating that pie with you
I can see it in your face how excited you are taking that memory back. What about you?
Were you in a wheelchair early in your life or what was the situation there?
Well, if I would have been born into any other regional center
Then yeah, I would have I would have been identified and placed into a wheelchair earlier than what I was
But the wheelchair to me although I was born with half of my spine brought back home
And the wheelchair was not an enabler in that part of the world
I think of the wheelchair now and some people when they say things like confined to a wheelchair
The wheelchair is the opposite of something that confines you it's something that gives you the world
But it didn't give you car call
Carcall was that if I was going to be engaging in my community
Then I need to figure out alternate ways of getting around and it was crawling around the place
Mostly thrown on the back of my brothers and cousins. It was a way of just figuring out
How to engage with the world but knowing however, you got there you were welcome as you are
Which was the perfect way?
I hope everybody I wish that everyone was given that opportunity to be able to engage with the world as they are
You know and feel like you are valued and feel like you are welcome and feel like you are genuinely a part of it
However, it is that you you are able to kind of meet it. That was me crawling around the bush of car core
But feeling like I was welcome and feeling like I was a part of it
Well, I think what you've done in your life if people were struggling with that thought
I reckon you've helped them get through it mate because you've been
Incredible with your attitude to just getting on with life with whatever else gets thrown at you
Look the power of the adaption mate. I think that that is one of the things that disability
It's one of those overlooked things around disability when you welcome it into the workforce when you welcome it into
Into the the school environment or whatever educational or sporting club is that it brings this
Natural form of adaption that we can all learn from you know
We it's more in your face when you have a disability
The lesson is tightly wound in a bow and presented to you, you know undeniably
But that is the story of disability
That's what I see it as is this this ability to be able to adapt and find a way through life and find a way
Into community and it's one of the most undervalued
Assets, I think that we do see when it comes to disability engaging in community
Have you always had this positive attitude this sort of way of living? Have you or did you sort of grow into it? I
Welcomed the adventure I would say that always welcome the adventure of life. I'm not always positive
there's been a lot of stuff where I
Grumble my way through it, you know, and you do recognize the days that I'm miserable when you you know
Yeah, I think there's there's nothing wrong with grumbling. There's nothing wrong with cursing at what's in front of you
It's just a matter of engaging with it. Anyway, I would say that
Because I had a disability I had community
investing in me more than what they do even the
You know the kid that's non-disabled that part of me thinks and I have this kind of constant
Conflict between gratitude and guilt at the life that I get to live
You know gratitude because it has just been amazing every time that somebody
Every time that I needed a fight to take place on my behalf somebody was there fighting that fight
You know, but guilt because you recognize that you're one of the few people, you know
you're one of the fortunate ones because community identified you and saw that you were deserving of that fight and
You do have these guilt because you do see disability replicated all around us Australia
but when you go into the world or
into more challenging parts of the world you see this
disability and the vulnerability and the isolation just
Amplified to levels that are tough to get your head around and
You know recognizing how fortunate you are or I am it's one of those challenging parts of life
But in simpler form, yes
I think that the optimism or the resilience in me is something that was created or
Amplified by my family and my community because they zoned in on me and they gave me
How much have you enjoyed being successful and how much of your success has your family enjoyed like when you've won medals and so forth
Have they been there?
Is it the first phone call you make when if you're overseas and you haven't got them with you?
What's that community been like for you now? You've been able to give back. Yeah
It's a little bit. I don't know whether it's
Embarrassing to even talk about but whenever I'm on telly
Whenever anything comes on telly
Whenever I used to race the very first phone call would be to mum and dad still is no matter what happens on telly
If something goes out, I don't watch it
call mum and dad and I just say I get their kind of conversation around it and
Yeah, I think when I was 13 years old
I was introduced to wheelchair racing and my town come together behind my family's back and raised ten thousand dollars for me
200 farmers, you know cocky's
Concrete is fences
They found ten grand that they couldn't afford to buy me a racing wheelchair and a trip overseas
When my family tried to stop them, they said to stay out of it. It's between us and the boy
That gave me the world from that moment and I will forever be that kid that a town
Gave me, you know my entire life
You know that everything that's happened over the last 25 years doesn't happen without that it just doesn't so I
have made sure that
Everything that's happened since then I try and be open about that and I try and give that
Community that did what was right that they couldn't afford but they did it because they believed in it
I try and shine a light on that
Because it feels like I'll be forever that kid whose life was changed by that moment and we need more people doing that
You know, we need more people
Recognizing the power that we have to change someone's life in that moment. We won't get the gold medal
We won't get the fireworks or the sirens or anything
But there is so much power that we each have in each single day
That we can make huge
Differences in people's lives. We just need to recognize those moments. Yeah, I love that you had me teared up there
I could just imagine them all going no. No, I'm giving him 50
you hate Bobby you give him 20 and they got to the 10 grand and so
What was that moment like for you? You then head overseas?
You've got this racing bike and I'm assuming it's very different to what you've finally raced on is obviously the technology
Changed but how did you go at that event and that did that give you?
That in a drive to keep going down the sport track. Yeah
Well, it literally was one night where I remember going down
It's the school of arts and you saw hundreds of people a couple hundred people throwing in those $50 notes and just wondering
What does this all mean? You know, you're 12 or 13 years old. Just wondering what does this mean?
I've been out of the state twice or three times in my life
I'd never experienced anything outside of my own little world
And then all of a sudden I land in Fort Collins, Colorado
with 800 other people in wheelchairs or kids and I was both found my family there, but I was also
Possibly the strangest thing that they've ever seen because he is these little hillbilly
He's used to you know getting up and doing whatever the hell I want that's in my world and I land in the middle of this
Camp where I'm like in my chair. I'm out of my chair. I'm crawling, you know to the shops
Speaking that they can't understand me. I'm speaking so fast, but I was so buoyant and so opted like I was so
Ready for this that I would have been like the circus come to town to these kids
I then got in my race chair and it was a
Made it look like it had come out of some conflict zone. I think
Pretty wild and I was
Terrible. I was terrible. I come last in everything
I did the 800 meters and I remember thinking that this is just some form of torture that
This must have been the longest race in the world this
But I saw this group of kids who were able to be them and there was this
unifying thing amongst this community that we were all just so different and
It was at that period of time where I was realizing that I was different, you know
I'm like you're starting to enter into that teenage world where everyone's getting bigger
But you're kind of gonna be static, you know, and it's at that period of time where you don't want to stand out
You don't want to be the kid that is the odd one out, but I was the odd one out and
Every part of me was thinking that I would never not be the odd one out because there was no other kids with disabilities
In my school. I never really saw disability outside of those
commercials telling you not to drink and drive or else you'll be this busted-up fella, you know and
Seeing people with disabilities or wheelchairs when I go through the hospital and I was like, I'm not sick
It was a period of time where you just think how whether
My family and community were to me it felt like they had been a line drawn in the sand and I wouldn't go past that line
That's when I found that world and that's when you know car call gave me sport and
Sport changed everything
So it didn't start flash, but it gave you the inspiration to go
I'm moving in the right direction eventually
So you did come bum last in most of those races and you're like, oh dear
so you go back to town and you say thanks for the opportunity, but I'm gonna get better or do you sulk for a little
While or like what happens in your psyche as you're flying back into to Australia from being over in Colorado
Yeah, I actually think that I was a little embarrassed at the result
I do remember coming back home and just hoping nobody would ask
Lifelong friends at that camp and that you know
So I still got mates that I met from that one camp in Colorado
But I landed and everyone wanted to talk about the racing and I wanted to talk about everything else
I think but I knew that I wanted to get better. I
Just knew I wanted to be better. Yeah, and then my teacher saw that and she found
Linkages to introduce me to at my coach
she spent every single lunch time trying to give me access to different sports and
She would eventually find my coach and my coach then would teach me and work in the partnership me with me for it for 25 years
So your teacher is much love. What's her name? Let's give her a rap
Yeah, she hates it when I give her a rap. So you've a typical country teacher. Let's do it
Yeah, her name is Maureen Dixon and Dico is a legend. She really is. That's what it's all about
Good on you Dico and after you come back to Australia
Your teacher comes on board at some stage. You got to start getting better and at some stage you start winning stuff
So what was it like when you first started going? Oh, actually
I've got a coach and I'm doing what I'm told and it's all working out pretty well
And then when you start winning was that important to you? I don't start winning for quite a while
Like a long while
I was I was like mediocre as a junior and then when I became a bit better as a junior my coach
Flipped me into the opens before I started winning
So I was starting to get to the process to the point where I would be able to win a junior
Title and he he said I we had spoken about what we wanted and I wanted to see whether or not we could become the
You know the best in the world and being the best junior doesn't get that, you know
I think actually six too much success young. It's a bit of an inhibitor, you know you I think that
learning how to lose and
Taking the gains out of the losses you get greater gains than taking gains out of wins
Eventually that would would change but I had a solid decade of training with Dorsey before we started winning and then
Once we started winning we won more than we would lose or close to what 72 marathons
42 wins 20 places
so winning much more or podiuming much
You know there were 10 out of the 72 that we didn't get on the podium
But still winning 60% of every single start the win
Felt close to unattainable not completely unattainable, but it felt close to unattainable
Was the driving force behind everything almost you know, like everything was about seeing whether or not we could win
But there was always this thought that maybe that would never happen
The first win was amazing. It was in Athens in 2004. I hadn't been world champion
I hadn't even made it into a world championship final and then I we know two Paralympic gold medals in one games and
The win it's like that first one that you become
Absolutely undisputed best in the world. It etches a little piece in you where you know, they
You turn up and be the best that you can possibly be you are the absolute best in the world at your craft
you don't lose that you know that scratched itself in me and
You do recognize when you look back though
You do recognize that there were a thousand things where it all could have fell over
But I probably didn't recognize that until later on in the piece
I guess first of all, it was just the most increase like a
vacuum that you've created that you've got and I did have my mother and father with me and
You cross that line
You spend this moment with them and my coach and my trainer and my mechanic, you know
You bring everyone in and it feels like it's a vacuum where everything's removed by joy
And it's just bloody beautiful. You've taken me back there because of course I watched it and I've watched you many times
I've watched you go past me a few times when I was doing marathons myself and half marathons and whatever gee you go fast
What is the pace of your bike when you're absolutely in sync and going and going as well as you can well, mate
We did do the hardest marathon in the world and together. Thank you the New York Marathon in 2014
I think it was 15 14. Yeah, 14. Yeah, one of those ones. Yeah, believe me. I remember I remember it's 2014
Yeah, it was it was brutal
I just remember that it was like 60 kilometer an hour headwinds and
Head cross the entire way through New York. It was freezing cold
They wouldn't even let us race over the bridge. It was so windy in the wheelchairs
We average the fastest marathon that I ever did was one hour and 18 minutes and I think 32 seconds
That was in Boston Marathon and the winner that day was point three away from me
And he broke the world record in the marathon, but the average time is about an hour and a half
You it's about a 30 kilometer an hour
Average but downhills you could crest
75 to 80 can hour
Uphills are just a struggle and you do what you've got to do to get to the top
I did remember I think I was in a race with you when I saw me in a race with you
It sounds very la-di-da you were racing and I was behind you
It was around in Sydney round lady McQuarrie's chair
I think it might have been the Sydney half marathon and you got to a point and it was like a bit of a steep thing
Before you then rolled down and it just seemed like every piece of your body was just
Helping you to get to the top and then you knew then you're gonna be okay
How tough are you mentally and do you have to be tougher mentally than physically fit to win a race?
you've got to build a mentality that is just louder than any sort of
Any sort of physical thing obviously you you're working out and you're building a body that is quite strong
But you're alongside that you're creating either a voice or an idea that runs parallel to all of that strength training and
When I'm in a race every part of me is about
Nail in that race at the end of a race the my last race for Australia average heart rate was
195 beats per minute so you're
Constantly just on the rivet if you're going up a hill you're
Tearing away at your tricep you're tearing away at your pick
You know it's like a constant push up until you get to the top you get to the top
And you need to have arms that are like pistons they have to fire and quicken up and be you know
You need to get to 40 50 kilometers an hour before then you grab hold of your abdominals
You clench them you twist them and you pull them inside your rib cage so that you can get
Aerodynamic and you can get your head as low as you possibly can so that you can get the high speeds going down
so there's never although it might look like you're
coasting down the hill on the other side during a marathon you're actually
Screaming on the inside because you're running on about when you're in your tuck
You're only getting about 40% of your lungs filled and you've just
Climbed and ripped all your muscles apart going up the hill
So there's very little recovery there's very little
Moments where you are comfortable
People ask me whether or not I would ever do I miss racing?
I don't miss the person that I would create when I was raised and he was it felt like I would create this beast
This frickin thing that was just I would scream at myself during a marathon
I would have this thing that just would be relentless
relentless and a lot of it was
Reminding myself constantly how strong I am and that positive affirmation that
Visualization, but it was an intensity that I am so grateful that I will never go back to
Yeah, I loved every minute of racing
I've loved it and it was so much fun creating this thing this your body and mind
creating it was a lot of work, but
Idea of who you are and you know
Creating this voice that was stronger than any of these discomfort that you were going through
I love that, but I will never bloody do that again. You're done. Yeah, I am
Like it is so far behind me. It's like that part of me is now died
Not in a negative way like in a positive way
That I get to tie that up and celebrate it for what it is
But know that I never need to be it again. It's like that little man on your shoulder going. Okay
I've served you well. You don't need me anymore. I'm gonna go have a little retirement myself. That's
Looking at it. Yeah for sure
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Let's get back into the episode
So much traveling with your chosen sport and people say to me I have a quote here
I want to read it out that you actually changed the way that we view athletics in Australia
There's a lot of sacrifices going into that. But when people say that we're talking really serious
Communicators and people that we trust and love say that you actually changed the way that we view athletics in Australia
How does that make you feel?
I don't do well with compliments. Okay
Yeah, I try not to think about it too much the impact
Because although I say that that part of my the competitive part of my life has died. It's done
there is so much to bounce off and do still and I
Try not to think about
It's like when you win a marathon you pull the stuff that is useful going forwards and then you leave the other stuff behind
I don't like to think about my impact on community because I want to have impact tomorrow and the next day
In different ways, so I I try not to think about it
Well, I did recognize that there was a lot of people that had come on the journey with me
Especially in the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast
it had been a you know, you think about how wheelchair racing had started and we were in the early days your race and
No one would ever know and you're writing a press release, you know at midnight in
some unknown bloody
Country and it's not getting picked up outside of the Blaney Chronicle
Then you end up getting to a point where that's just completely different and
There is interest and community have come along on this journey and you've got amazing stuff
But I don't know. I just I I don't if he thought about it too much
I think it would get in the road of what's next. I can understand that let us do that for you then
Talk about your team because you've mentioned them a few times, but mainly family and your wife and so forth
What's that like because you're sacrificing a lot. They're also sacrificing a lot
Yeah, I often talk about the perfect day when I was racing there was I know that there were four perfect races
Just perfect. Nothing better in the world. There are now hundreds of perfect days that I've had with the family
You know that and I wouldn't swap any of them for any race it made during my racing career
It made the racing more meaningful to me
I was able to share something that I loved in the last four years of my career with Harry and Amelia
Many of the days in Sheridan, of course, they'll probably never forget it or never remember it
But I'll never forget the amazing moments with them, but there are equally as amazing moments when I
Crawling to the bush with my young fella looking for koalas or something like that, you know
I've got a farm now and digging a post hole with Harry
While we're putting a strainer up, you know
I'm completely different and he's gonna have an interesting take on his own really unique take on disability and
Adventures I would be interested to see what kind of you he has on it at some point
but I just find that having your family and engaging and making sure that they are part of all the
Adventures that are that are taking place and then you get to be a part of their
Adventures as well is just I wouldn't don't I think that's why I was so confident and comfortable with disappearing from that
wheelchair racing world is
Because I have this other thing that's just so much more
Meaningful to me at that point in time and having the kids just meant I was so
confident and comfortable with turning my head away from wheelchair racing because I
Got to the point where I would rather have a day crawling into the bush with the kids or go and swimming with the kids
Then racing New York again. Yeah, it's a cool place to be. Yeah, it was where did you meet Sheridan?
And was it love at first sight?
Did you have to literally wear a down eventually or how did that all work out?
Oh, well, I did teach Sheridan wheelchair basketball when she was in year eight. She was from Kelso High. I was in Blaney High
I was in I think year 11 or 12
But I never saw her again after that and although I gave her her sport team vice captain badge when she was in year
12 as well as I was visiting Bathurst, but we met at uni once we met it was
I'm trying to think how long it was. We were so young like I was about 22 Sheridan was 20 and I think we just
Within three months we were together and what is it now? It's probably 17 years later
I never really wanted to get married and I think Sheridan always did want to get married and there was seven years
until I would ask but I
Think that we were both
Sheridan is the thing that I love about her and the thing that stood out is that she was up for any adventure any point
In time something would pop up. She was very adventurous. She's very strong as well
She is an incredibly kind of just deal with everything that comes through the pipeline and just figure a way through
It was pretty it was probably about six months in that. I thought this is this is gonna be around for a while
If I asked her the same question would she say the same thing I don't know we don't do a lot of media
we don't like it's always I've always kind of felt that the
relationship is ours and
Everything else is you know, all the other stuff that happens that's out there that there is always an in here
We did one interview and they asked they asked Sheridan. What's it like being my carer?
Like disability sits in this weird place with disability and sport is that you get one moment you get given these moments of
admiration in these huge stages, but around the corner you get moments of absolute pity
Where your wife your partner your friend is called your carer by an
uneducated sport-loving journo
You can't believe would think that that was appropriate
but they do or you you walk around that stadium and somebody would look at you who wasn't at the event and
Would ask you how shit it is to be in a wheelchair
You know like you you'd leave kind of tiptoeing in these these different worlds
That is a a really kind of unique place to be but we did keep our
Relationship outside of that and probably mostly still so I've never really heard Sheridan really describe that period of time
I might get to ask you one day
She does talk about how I was never like it was never that type of a relationship
She met me and I was the one that would open up the door for her
There was never and that's how she responded if she first ripped into the journal
But then she said for the first I don't do it now, obviously after 20 years you stop open the door
But that was probably our relationship is that it was not what any one in the world I think would assume it would be
Yeah, I love it. I just see the smile on your face when you talk about you know
And talk about your kids and the fact you've been able to walk away from such a platinum not just got a platinum career
And just be so happy. That's what I love
I know I haven't got a lot more of your time and I know how precious it is
but I did want to talk to you about Kokoda because
Gotcha for life my foundation some guys down in the southern Shire of Sydney put together a pack of about
35 of us were meant to go last year covered mucked us up
We are going this year and the bloke who took you is taking me and
He said that it's the most incredible fate of all time the fact that you crawled the Kokoda Trail
For you must have built that beast up in your mind to do that one. Yeah, it was
brutal brutal like it was the 18 months of getting ready for it the 18 months of building, you know the equipment to
Protect my skin. It was the the 18 months of teaching myself to crawl again
But I could have done another 10 years of it and it wouldn't have been enough
It was it's the things that get you that you weren't expecting
The emotion of seeing disability on that track was pretty full-on but also the constantly
Sitting in mud, you know, like you finish a day and like most people are walking
They kind of just remember constantly feeling like I was sitting in wet the takeaways from that place one Wayne
Whether or who you're doing with I had tried a couple of times to get other people to engage in the idea of letting me
They said immediately, you know, you're an idiot. Hang up the phone. Yeah
Wayne it just saw me race in Beijing and he's like, okay
I think it's a bit out there, but I want to meet you flew down to Newcastle
We did a crawl immediately together and crawled for about three hours and he's just like yeah
This is on let's do it a hundred percent. Let's go, you know 18 months from there. We would do it together
I think that that place there is something incredible about it. There is
something that I think is the central in putting your fingers in the dirt of where Australians have sacrificed so much so that we can be
also spend time with the PNG people who are the most
Yet kind and warm and loving and beautiful people that you're ever gonna meet and
Often you find when you go into those parts of the world where it is most challenging and you think that it's oh
How could people live, you know in a way that is so bloody hard
You look around at those kids that are there and they are just so happy
There is so much joy that is found in parts of the world where you would think that the struggle is just so bloody tough
And the way that they interact with each other this the contact with each other the sharing with each other
Mate that trek was by far the most damaging time of my life. It was brutal
Eleven days nine hours a day just constantly in the mud
But the kindness and the support and the love from the people over there and that was by far the most meaningful thing
Then I always say that there is an edge from that moment in
The first moment that I won that etched into your DNA, you know
Scratches in there that you know on your day. You can be the absolute best in the world
Kokoda etched its way into me as well
That there is not a day that I go through that is one of those hard days those bloody
Miserable days, you know the days that you almost dread to happen to do and they are
But it's like all I've got to do is close the eyes and go back to that mud
Track where your body feels like it's ripped apart
But there is a porter next year called Mac who gives you these big bloody smile
Who at the end of every day says that if you want to be in Moresby?
I'll put you in my back and I'll be in there by morning
Every night he would sidle up next to me and he would say that to me or you remember just
Dragging yourself and just
recognizing the discomfort but
You were able to be okay in that, you know that the pain that is comfort the struggle but it's alright and
Getting to a place like that and going through that has been incredibly valuable because we're all gonna struggle
We're all gonna feel like we're dragging ourselves through mud and that's okay
Most times it'll end but like on that track if you've got people around you if you're able to share the journey
Then it just is so much more meaningful and that's what the track really left me with
That I can crawl weeks in the mud
I can deal with the discomfort as long as I've got the
Love and support of the people around me and the understanding of why I'm doing it. I cannot wait
I'm taking my son who'd be 22 then and yeah, just to share that moment with a few mates as well
I cannot wait Wayne is that you know, infectious isn't he's incredible. So he is I'll keep you
Posted on how we go there before we finish off with the fast five questions. You did mention those four perfect races
Could you just share those four perfect races?
You don't need to go into much detail
But just for people listening so they can remember perhaps those races or go and search themselves
Yeah, the first one is Athens in 2004 the marathon I'd win by
Three and a half minutes flat tire the last five K's but just perfect
The second one was in Beijing in 2008 the Paralympic marathon to defend the gold
The third one was Gold Coast last race average heart rate at 195 beats per minute
You know, you don't you don't get a more
Challenging space in this world then tried to hold something like that
But did it amazing a fourth one is a second place that I got in New York chair fell apart
In my hands, I get 20 kilometers into the race while I was leading
I was trying to get my fifth straight win, but when it all fell apart
Everything still kind of bounced back on its own. It's like the instinct went. Well, how do I still win?
And 72 marathons not one time did I not make it to the finish and on this race when?
Everything fell apart the instinct and the voice that I had built was just like it grabbed hold and it it was perfect
I could not have manipulated that 42 kilometers in any other way that would work out any better
Than a this second place 32 seconds away from the winner. That's so awesome. And just on the Paralympics
I know we've spoken about it on my sports show and how passionate you are about it
But can you believe how awesome it is and how many people are into that as much as the able-bodied Olympics?
yeah, mate one of the most amazing things that I saw is that we really tried to create a culture of the mob of the
community of the family and connect to the very first Paralympian which is uncle Kevin Coombs an
Indigenous athlete who was unable to participate under an Australian passport because he was indigenous
He had to apply for a British passport an honorary British passport to compete for the Australian Paralympic team
And he said that it was a kick in the guts
But nothing was going to stop him and he said uncle Kevin set the time for who we are and seeing
Seeing this team really adopt that as the culture and really own it
I think that we were creating it in the last two games when I saw it from afar
I recognize the true impact that we can have in our community
Paralympics will be the one that you want to bring your kids to it's the one that I will bring my kids to
Couldn't agree with you more mate. Your favorite holiday destination
Anywhere where I can see the water anywhere, you know, I love Fiji
But really it's anywhere where I can sit down in a space and look at water
I just for some reason it just chills me out. You're up in Newcastle or Newcastle for now
They love you up there. Don't they you and Andrew Johns and Maddie Johns?
I mean you the Kings of up there. Do you love being up in Newcastle? Yeah, I come here and I know three
But wild horses couldn't drag me away
There is it's the bush on the beach and I love being a part of a community that has pride in itself like real
real pride in who it is and what it what it does and
It was immediate to me when I come up here that it really had this
Dug into the trenches pride of everything that is Newcastle and yeah, I'm not far from the beach here in Hamilton
But also I've got my fix for the property and I've got a little farm out at Dungog as well
So I escaped to the bush also
Perfect place for you and that you and the kids and and your missus to escape your favorite movie
Oh gee, I'd have to go to what is but it depends
So I use both music and movies to put me in a right space the day before a marathon
I would watch warrior or gladiator or something or or rocky
But then I just love comedies the life of Brian
I must have watched that I must have watched that a million times
Seriously, I could watch that I could watch that right now
I could watch that after a race, you know something that is just light-hearted and fun
But I always think about music and movies and and arts, you know in general
It has the ability to manipulate and shift your arousal your mood and so I see them as kind of tools and it just depends
What about your music? Who's your favorite musician or band? What's your favorite concert you went to?
The favorite concert that I went to Paul Kelly
He's definitely my favorite muso because he sings with substance like he tells a story
It's not about glitter
Representing him or those around him or the the atmospheres that aren't that he's in in a in a meaningful way
And one of these concerts, I remember I was on my mate's shoulders
It was just the greatest meeting him a few years later and having a couple of red wines was also
Just one of those it's one of those moments the way you go
It's a weird world
Like it's a there's been a few of them. There's been a few of those moments, but that was one of them as well
Because you would be in a situation at times we just go what what's what's happened here?
How have I how have I got here in your life because you put yourself out there, right?
There was one time where man Sheridan were having a yarn to Bart Cummings
I loved Bart. Bart was comfortable at the car call pub and comfortable with the Queen and
Both of those characters did not shift
He was the same bloke and would be the same to sitting down having a yarn to my old man as he was sitting down having
Yarn to royalty and I actually got to meet the Queen with him and we're sitting down across the table from us next to me
Bart crosses the Queen and I just remember thinking that that's a long way away from
fingers in the dirt at car call and then all of a sudden
You're in Westminster Abbey
Doing a speech with the Queen a meter away from me or you haven't dinner with the next day or whatever that is
It's been there's been a lot of those moments where you just shake your head and there were
A thousand little pieces to this puzzle and if one of them isn't contributed then it all falls apart
I love that. I love the I love the thought of you doing that as well. Just looking around going
Well, this is pretty cool
This is a bit weird
I'm rolling with it
There's a good feet
It's still a bit weird
You'd have to be a decent fade with the Queen on board. What was she like? Did you like her?
Did you have a chance to have a bit of a chat? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was lovely
We met a few times now
I do laugh because I did made it with the first time I met it was with Bart and
The media come up to me after I had this yarn and we were talking for because he introduced me to her
You just kind of hit the ground running. So yeah talk talk talk and the media come up and they said what was your conversation with?
The Queen and Bart just grabbed me by the shoulder and he goes you don't say a bloody word
Tell him to have their own
conversation with the Queen
It's between you and her and I'm that I just like I'm and I've never spoken about it so I love it that's beautiful
Last question mate your favorite charity because sure and partners
They want to give ten thousand dollars to a charity of your choice
If you could tell us who that is but also what they would do with the ten thousand dollars
So we can sort of get an understanding and perhaps from people can then support them as well themselves
Yeah, I made I one of the most meaningful parts of my life has been engaging with the Rubin Center
Which is a within the Rubin Center. They educate
1,800 kids in the Makuru slum in Nairobi
Within that we have the Kurt Fearnley Center that is
Educating around 80 kids with disabilities and I would go over there with my wife in
See eight mothers who were given a kilogram of flour to bring their kids off the street or in their house
because most kids with disability they live either on the floor of the house and never leave or
potentially because
It's complicated the story of disability in the developing world disability is seen as the sickness and curse of
Disability and the mother is often the one that is then blamed within the family unit for bringing it into the family
So they are ostracized and left with dealing with the complications around disability on their own
So the Makuru Center back then it's brought eight mothers in whose kids were living on their back or tied on their front and
Then they were able to create the Kurt Fearnley Center
That's gave five days a week eight hours a day three meals a day access to occupational therapists and physiotherapists
Then when they brought into the center mainstream across into
Non-disabled classes so that it it meets the ideology that I truly believe that disability needs to be everywhere
We use it as a focal point to bring the kids out of community out of isolation
But then give them the ability to to be included through the mainstream setting
There's a little kid there in a wheelchair who I went over just before COVID two kids Peter and John
I push into the school and three kids are pushing them over to me to meet him and I sat him down immediately
And I said they you never let a kid push you okay
I want to see you build these muscles up because it was told to me when I was
13 that you never be pushed you choose where you go and how you go there
For the next week
would see kids try and push these kids in wheelchairs and the kid would John and Peter would turn around and whip them away and
Now you see photos and videos of them racing up and down the school
But you they just needed to be told that they are strong
You know that they can you never you choose where you go and how you do it. It's been
Incredible to see the development of that program in there and it's ran by the Edmund Rice Foundation
they've still been doing it through COVID which has just created a lot of challenges and I
Marvel at their work and the people that engage in that setting and I cannot wait for the day that I can get back
Over there and see him, but they need the
They need the support they need
Every dollar goes over there and it does make a difference
I'm really grateful for your supporting sponsors that they're they're able to make that contribution
Absolutely, and we'll make sure that we let them know it's from you and then when you next see them you can
Go and see those two boys again and see how much they've been able to take on board what you said
I just love chatting to you mate. I really have I could have spoken to you
I've got a hardly even got through my questions because you've said something and it made me want to ask you another question
But you know, it's been absolutely wonderful and I just take care of you and your family and once we can have a conversation
Face-to-face that'd be nice
Well, that was Kurt Fearny and what I loved about that is that it's just nothing's ever gonna stop him to go where he wants
To go and that should be fantastic life advice for all of us that are listening. He never said no he cracked on
He did things with a smile on his face. He's a man that I admire and a man that I love
Coming up next on not an overnight success is Lisa Wilkinson
Lisa Wilkinson is one of Australia's most respected journalists and media personalities
It seems that almost everything that Lisa touches turns to gold from becoming the editor of a national magazine at just 21
To the longest-standing female host of the Today Show Lisa knows the thing or two about hard work and success
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