Kurt Fearnley provides best sporting moment of 2018

Kurt Fearnley and Australia’s para-athletes have been honoured with the Best Sporting Moment at the AIS Awards.

Paralympian Kurt Fearnley was a winner at the AIS Sport Performance Awards. Picture: Tim Marsden

Kurt Fearnley came wheeling along the footpath outside the athletes’ village at the Commonwealth Games. He took the corner at a fair clip, skidded to a halt. Shook hands with a firm grip. Grinned throughout an extended chat before a tear appeared in his vibrant eyes. He was trying to ­explain what it meant to him to represent Australia at sport.

Not a noted choker, he shook his head, looked at his lap, gazed up and said: “Everything.”

Now, some athletes and/or their performances can put a lump in the throat of the most world-weary ­reporter. Ian Thorpe at the Sydney Olympics. Cathy Freeman. Winx. Steve Smith’s fall from grace. Mick Fanning’s retirement. Jarrod Lyle’s death.

You’re looking at your laptop and typing at a furious rate while blinking away tears. Oh shit, here they come again.

Now Fearnley and Australia’s para-athletes have been honoured with the Best Sporting Moment at the AIS Sport Performance Awards in Sydney last night.

Heck, yes. I shed a tear because of the bloke at the Gold Coast Games. Not for the bloke.

Forget the wheelchair. Sometimes you realise that an athlete’s real engine is the sheer bloody size of his heart. That his motives are pure. That he genuinely wants to inspire me, you, them and everybody to get off our backsides and have a crack.

Writing this story, I was going to go back over our interview to pluck out a few of his gems. But I can remember the guts of it in one word. I can still see the painstaking look on his face when he said it.

Asked what he would do in his final marathon for Australia, the T54 event at the Games, he said: “Fight.”

He would fight for everyone who had ever supported him. He would fight for his family. He would fight for the army of mates who had flown to the Gold Coast to be with him. Fight for all disabled athletes. Fight for all disabled people. Fight for their needs of better access to education and transportation and a million things in between. Fight for the sort of inclusion represented by para-athletes sharing the stage with the able-bodied at the Games. Fight to present Australia to the sporting world in a positive light. Fight to win his last hurrah as a thank you for the privilege of representing his nation.

What followed was a staggering demonstration of strength. ­Resilience. Willpower. And a dangerously high heart rate of 211 beats per minute. What a tough bastard Fearnley was that day.

As if you could not respect him any more, the larrikinism in his soul could not be contained. He could drop one-liners for Australia, too. Could you possibly get a greater example of what an Australian sportsman should be?

Iron-willed, healthy of spirit. He won the marathon and said simply enough: “Bloody awesome, mate.”

There wasn’t a dry eye in the vicinity. His marathon victory and the full integration of para-sport at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games received its due recognition at the AIS Sport Performance Awards in Sydney. He accepted the award on behalf of all the para-athletes who lit up the Games and more often than not, threatened to steal the show.

From the votes of nearly 20,000 Australians, the retired Craig Lowndes was named the Sport Personality of the Year, ahead of Fearnley, at a function attended by 400-plus guests at The Star.

Jess and Miriam Fox were the daughter-mother winners of the Female Athlete and Coach of the Year awards. Jess this year became the most decorated female canoe slalom paddler of all time.

Cyclist Rohan Dennis was Male Athlete of the Year for his victory at the Time Trial World Championships, which was Australia’s first victory on the road since Cadel Evans in 2009. Dennis’s teammate Luke Platt was Emerging Athlete of the Year.

Cycling Australia won the High Performance Program of the Year award for its 10 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games. Simon Patmore was named para-athlete of the year for becoming the first Australian man to win a medal at summer and winter Paralympics.

The Kookaburras were team of the year for their Commonwealth Games and Champions Trophy wins. The inaugural Sport Australia

Award, representing sportsmanship, fair play and integrity, went to 10,000m runners Celia Sullohern, Madeline Hills and Eloise Wellings, who waited at the finish line to congratulate the last-placed athlete, Lineo Chaka from the African nation of Lesotho.

In their own way, they showed as much heart as Fearnley.