John Fennell

John Fennell
Personal information
Born May 28, 1995 (1995-05-28) (age 23)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Sport
Country  Canada
Sport Luge

John Fennell (born May 28, 1995 in Calgary, Alberta) is a 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 Fennel.[3][4] His brother David Fennel 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, he is now only partially funded by the Canadian Luge Association. 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 2018, Fennell, unable to qualify for the Canadian squad for the 2018 Winter Olympics, took advantage of his dual Canadian-U.S citizenship and competed for a spot on the U.S. squad; but crashed his sled during the trials and did not make the team.[6]

References

  1. ↑ John Fennell at Canada Luge
  2. ↑ Calgary's John Fennell makes first Olympic luge team Archived 2013-12-24 at the Wayback Machine.. Calgary Sun, December 17, 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Luger John Fennell tells the world he's gay" Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine.. Regina Leader-Post, May 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/olympian-wants-to-help-tackle-homophobia-in-sport-ahead-of-pride-parade-1.2749943
  5. ↑ http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/david_fennell_810670.html
  6. ↑ https://www.outsports.com/2017/12/14/16778420/john-fennell-olympic-gay-luge-usa
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