Sprints star O’Hanlon aims to create history in winter sport

For Evan O’Hanlon, the Rio Paralympics was set to be his swansong. The sprints sensation had five Paralympic gold medals to his name with a perfect strike rate in Beijing and London, and retirement was calling. 

But a silver medal in the Men’s 100m T38 in which China’s Hu Jianwen broke O’Hanlon’s world record changed things dramatically - spurring O’Hanlon to charge on to a home Commonwealth Games in 2018, where he claimed victory once again.  

“The silver in Rio left a pretty bad taste in my mouth and I didn’t want people to think that I’d walked away just when it got tough,” he said. 

Balancing part time work for his family’s business whilst preparing for redemption on the Gold Coast, O’Hanlon soon hatched a spontaneous plan when at the gym, the bobsleigh on the TV caught his eye. 

With the approval of loved ones, the accomplished sprinter packed his bags and headed to the Czech Republic where his wife is from, with one sole intention - to become the first person in history to represent their country at both the Summer Paralympics and Winter Olympics by representing Australia in a second sport -  bobsleigh. 

“I want to become an Olympian because I want to add that to my titles but I’m not trying to take anything away from being a Paralympian either - they’re two totally different things and neither of them is better than the other,” he said.

“If I didn’t try it, I knew I would’ve been that 50 or 60-year-old at the pub saying they could have done bobsleigh.” 

And then there’s O’Hanlon’s last piece of motivation. 

“My wife is already an Olympian, so I’m playing catch up there,” he said of his wife, Czech race walker Zuzana Schindlerová.

With both the 100m and bobsleigh events explosive in their nature, O’Hanlon says that their relationship physically is harmonious, yet the mental aspect can be challenging. 

“Running at the top and then jumping in and then driving down, I’m the pilot. It’s very mentally draining and training around that can be difficult,” he said. 

“I’m studying the tracks in my free time and remember what corners are where, and how to approach each corner.” 

The 32-year-old has taken the first step towards achieving his Olympic dream by qualifying for the IBSF Bobsleigh World Championships, taking place in Altenberg, Germany from 5-8 February. 

“Whilst it’s not a huge achievement to make the world championships compared to what I’m doing in athletics when going for medals, it still feels very good because it is an able bodied World Championships and I’m a Paralympic athlete,” he said. 

But with Tokyo on the horizon, O’Hanlon is determined to get back to his winning ways. 

“I still think I can win, I don’t see any reason why I can’t,” he said. 

“I’m confident that come the Paralympic Games, I’ll be in very good shape and running very fast.” 

Raised in a family with a rich sporting history, O’Hanlon’s competitive nature has been prominent right from the beginning of his career, when one of his major goals was to deliver results worthy of the Paralympic Games.

And as the profile of the Paralympic movement has grown, so has his presence on the track. 

“I was attempting to run fast enough so that people would wake up and look at Paralympic sport seriously,” he said. 

“I never rock up to an athletics event like a Paralympics or World Para Championships thinking that it’s nice just to be there.”

Coached by Iryna Dvoskina, O’Hanlon’s seems destined to attend his fourth Paralympic Games in Tokyo where he aims to reclaim another 100m T38 title - with a position on the men’s bobsleigh team at the next Winter Olympics a dream well within O’Hanlon’s grasp. 

By Lachlan Moorhouse
Posted: 29/1/2021
Photo with thanks to Manuel Steinbach