John Fennell
 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 28, 1995 (age 28) Evergreen, Colorado, U.S. |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | Luge |
John Fennell (born May 28, 1995 in Evergreen, Colorado) is an American-Canadian luger who has competed since 2011.[1]
He competed for Canada in the first-ever Youth Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, where he finished 7th, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia,[2] finishing 27th.
He is the son of former Canadian Football League player Dave Fennell and mother Lynne Fennell.[3][4] His brother David Fennell Jr. played fullback on the Michigan State football team.[5]
In May 2014, several months after competing at Sochi, Fennell came out as gay.[3]
Fennell competed well at the Sochi Olympics, but since he did not finish in the top 10. As a result, in order to fulfil his funding needs, Fennell launched a fundraising campaign on the sports crowdfunding platform MAKEACHAMP on December 12, 2014.
In 2016, Fennell took advantage of his dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship and competed for a spot on the U.S. National team. However, during the 2018 U.S. Olympic trials, he crashed his sled and did not make the Olympic team.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ John Fennell at Canada Luge
- ^ Calgary's John Fennell makes first Olympic luge team Archived 2013-12-24 at the Wayback Machine. Calgary Sun, December 17, 2013.
- ^ a b "Luger John Fennell tells the world he's gay" Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine. Regina Leader-Post, May 28, 2014.
- ^ "Olympian wants to help tackle homophobia in sport ahead of pride parade | CBC News".
- ^ "David Fennell Bio - Michigan State Official Athletic Site". Archived from the original on 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2018-01-18.
- ^ "Olympian John Fennell's 2018 hopes just ended in the worst way, and he could use a hug". 14 December 2017.
External links[edit]
- Official website
- John Fennell at FIL
- John Fennell at Olympedia
- John Fennell at the Canadian Olympic Committee
  | This biographical article relating to luge in Canada is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1995 births
- Lugers from Calgary
- Canadian male lugers
- Lugers at the 2014 Winter Olympics
- Olympic lugers for Canada
- Living people
- Canadian gay sportsmen
- LGBT people from Colorado
- People from Evergreen, Colorado
- LGBT lugers
- Lugers at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics
- 21st-century Canadian LGBT people
- Luge biography stubs
- Canadian winter sports biography stubs