 Photo of Tom O'Neill-Thorne from the 2016 Australian Paralympic Team media guide | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australia |
| Born | (1997-04-08)8 April 1997 (age 28) |
| Sport | |
| Position | Point guard |
| Disability class | 3.0 |
| Club | CD Ilunion |
Tom O'Neill-Thorne (born 8 April 1997) is a3.0 pointwheelchair basketball player from Australia. He was part of theRollers team that won the2014 Incheon World Wheelchair Basketball Championship. He was a member of the Rollers at the2024 Summer Paralympics, his third Games.[1][2]
Tom O'Neill-Thorne was born on 8 April 1997, witharthrogryposis multiplex,[3] a congenital condition,[4] which he describes succinctly as: "my legs didn't grow properly".[5] By the time he was two years old, he required a wheelchair,[3] but watching the2000 Summer Olympic Games inSydney on television, he decided that he wanted to become an athlete.[5]
O'Neill-Thorne took upwheelchair 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 theAustralian Institute of Sport, and, in 2012, at age 14, of the Queensland Spinning Bullets in theNational Wheelchair Basketball League, where he was coached byTom Kyle.[3][4] 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).[6]
That year O'Neill-Thorne was selected for his first international tournament, with the U23 team (the Spinners) inDubai, where the team won gold.[4] In 2013, he was part of the Spinners team at theIWBF U23 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship inAdana, Turkey, where they won bronze. Later that year he made his debut with thesenior national team (the Rollers) at the 2013 Asia-Oceania Zone Championships inBangkok, and the following year was part of the Rollers team that won gold at the2014 Incheon World Wheelchair Basketball Championship.[6] He was the youngest ever Roller to play in a World Championship.[7]
By 2016, O'Neill-Thorne was averaging 25.86 points per game with the Spinning Bullets.[5] In June 2016, he toured Great Britain for the 2016 Continental Clash against Canada, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.[8] The Rollers were defeated by the United States, and won silver.[3] In July, he was selected for the2016 Summer Paralympics inRio de Janeiro.[9] He was one of five Rollers selected for their first Paralympics[9] where they finished sixth.[10]
In 2018, he was a member of the Rollers that won the bronze medal at2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship inHamburg,Germany where he averaged 14.5 points, four rebounds and three assists per game.[11]
At the2020 Tokyo Paralympics, the Rollers finishedfifth with a win–loss record of 4–4.[12][13] At the2024 Paris Paralympics, he was a member of the Rollers that finished fifth with a win/loss record of 3-3.[14]
O'Neill-Thorne was awarded the Northern Territory Government Sportsperson of the Year at the 2017 Northern Territory Sports Awards.[15]
