Darren Gardiner
 2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Gardiner | |||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |
 Australia | ||||||||||||
| Born |
19 November 1969 Brisbane | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 125 kg (276 lb) | ||||||||||||
Medal record
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Darren Gardiner (born 19 November 1969) is an Australian Paralympic powerlifter. He has won two Paralympic silver medals in the Men's Over 100 kg powerlifting event. He did not medal at the 2012 Games.
Personal
Gardiner was born on 19 November 1969.[1] In 1994,[2] his left leg was amputated below the knee due to cancer.[1][2] He works as a sales manager.[1] He moved from Brisbane to Perth in 2006.[2] He weighs 125 kilograms (276 lb).[2]
Powerlifting
Gardiner started powerlifting in 1995, and first represented Australia in 1998.[1] He competes in the Over 100 kg men division.[1] He has had the nickname "the bear" since 1997 because of the loud roaring noise he makes during competition.[2] As of October 2011, he is ranked second in the world.[3] As of May 2011, his personal best lift is 235 kg.[2]
He competed at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics but did not win a medal.[4] At the 2004 Athens Games, he won a silver medal in the Men's Over 100 kg event,[4] when he lifted 227.5 kg.[3] He repeated his silver medal performance in the same event at the 2008 Summer Paralympics.[3][4]
In 2005, he competed at the Trafalgar event in Melbourne, where he won a bronze medal in the EAD category for powerlifting with a lift of 227.5 kilograms (502 lb).[5]
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He has competed at several other events outside the Paralympics. In 2006, he finished second at the World Championships. That year, he took a bronze at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He won a silver medal in 2007 at the European Open.[1] He did not compete for most of 2010 due to injury.[2] At the 2011 Oceania Paralympic Championships, part of the Arafura Games, he finished first with a score of 230, 70 more than second place competitor Abebe Fekadu.[3][6] He was selected to compete at the 2012 London Paralympics.[1] He did not medal at the 2012 Games, missing out on a bronze medal by 1 kg.[7] His retirement was announced in December 2012.[7]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Darren Gardiner". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chadwick, Justin (18 May 2011). "Bear ready to roar at London Paralympics". Nine MSN. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
- 1 2 3 4 Wheelchair Sports Western Australia (3 October 2011). "The Bear Eyes Fourth Paralympic Campaign". Western Australian Institute of Sport. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
- 1 2 3 Results for Darren Gardiner from the International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 14 August 2012.
- ↑ Reid, David (25 March 2006). "Elite athletes with drive, not disability". The Age. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2012.
- ↑ "2011 Oceania Paralympic Championships - Powerlifting". 2011 Oceania Paralympic Championships. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
- 1 2 "Bear bows out of weightlifting". Australian Paralympic Committee News. 11 December 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2012.