Tom O'Neill-Thorne (born 8 April 1997) is a 3.0 point wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He was part of the Rollers team that won the

2014 Incheon World Wheelchair Basketball Championship The 2014 Men's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was the 12th edition of the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. It was hosted in Incheon, South Korea. Australia won its second title in a row. Medalists Preliminary round Group A ...

. He was a member of the Rollers team that competed at

2020 Summer Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralym ...

, his second Games.

Biography

Tom O'Neill-Thorne was born on 8 April 1997, with arthrogryposis multiplex, a congenital condition, which he describes succinctly as: "my legs didn’t grow properly". By the time he was two years old, he required a wheelchair, but watching the

2000 Summer Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on television, he decided that he wanted to become an athlete.

Basketball

O'Neill-Thorne took up wheelchair basketball when he was nine, when a local competition was established. He became a member of the Queensland Junior team, then the development squad at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

, and, in 2012, at age 14, of the Queensland Spinning Bullets in the National Wheelchair Basketball League, where he was coached by

Tom Kyle Tom Kyle (born 15 June 1959) is an Australian wheelchair basketball coach who coaches the Queensland Spinning Bullets and the Australian women's national wheelchair basketball team. He was assistant coach of the Australian men's national whee ...

. As a 16 year old, in 2013, he averaged 17.1 points per game (eight in the league), 6.5 rebounds and 5 assists per game (sixth in the league). That year O'Neill-Thorne was selected for his first international tournament, with the U23 team (the Spinners) in Dubai, where the team won gold. In 2013, he was part of the Spinners team at the IWBF U23 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Adana, Turkey, where they won bronze. Later that year he made his debut with the senior national team (the Rollers) at the 2013 Asia-Oceania Zone Championships in Bangkok, and the following year was part of the Rollers team that won gold at the

. He was the youngest ever Roller to play in a World Championship. By 2016, O'Neill-Thorne was averaging 25.86 points per game with the Spinning Bullets. In June 2016, he toured Great Britain for the 2016 Continental Clash against Canada, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States. The Rollers were defeated by the United States, and won silver. In July, he was selected for the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

in Rio de Janeiro. He was one of five Rollers selected for their first Paralympics where they finished sixth. In 2018, he was a member of the Rollers that won the bronze medal at

2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship The 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Hamburg, Germany, from 16 to 26 August 2018. Both men's and women's tournaments were held, with 12 women's and 16 men's teams competing, representing 19 di ...

in Hamburg, Germany where he averaged 14.5 points, four rebounds and three assists per game. At the

2020 Tokyo Paralympics The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international multi-sport parasports event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. They were the 16th Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the International Paralympic ...

, the Rollers finished fifth with a win–loss record of 4–4. O'Neill-Thorne was awarded the Northern Territory Government Sportsperson of the Year at the 2017 Northern Territory Sports Awards.

References

External links

*
Basketball Australia Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:ONeill-Thorne, Tom 1997 births Living people Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Australia Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Point guards