John Fennell (born May 28, 1995 in

Evergreen, Colorado Evergreen is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Jefferson County, Colorado, U.S. The CDP is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Everg ...

) is an American-Canadian

luge A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled's runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh for s ...

r who has competed since 2011. He competed for Canada in the first-ever Youth Olympics in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, where he finished 7th, and at the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, finishing 27th. He is the son of former

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

player

Dave Fennell Dave Fennell (born February 4, 1953) is a former defensive lineman for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League. After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 1973, he played for Edmonton from 1974 to 1983, and helped lead th ...

and mother Lynne Fennell."Luger John Fennell tells the world he's gay"
. ''

Regina Leader-Post The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is the daily newspaper of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and a member of the Postmedia Network. Founding The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by Nicholas Flood Davin, soon after Edgar Dewdney, Li ...

'', May 28, 2014. His brother David Fennell Jr. played fullback on the

Michigan State football The Michigan State Spartans football program represents Michigan State University (MSU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. The Spartans are members of the Big Ten Conference. Michigan State claims a ...

team. In May 2014, several months after competing at Sochi, Fennell came out as gay. 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.

References

External links

* * 1995 births Lugers from Calgary Canadian male lugers Lugers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Olympic lugers of Canada Living people Canadian LGBT sportspeople Gay sportsmen LGBT people from Colorado People from Evergreen, Colorado LGBT lugers Lugers at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics {{Canada-luge-bio-stub