Todd Hodgetts

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Todd Hodgetts
File:070611 - Todd Hodgetts - 3b - 2012 Team processing.jpg
2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Hodgetts
Personal information
Full name Todd Hodgetts
Nickname(s) The Hulk
Nationality Australia
Born (1988-03-23) 23 March 1988 (age 36)
Launceston, Tasmania
Sport
Country Australia
Sport Athletics
Event(s) Shot Put
Club Newstead Harriers
Coached by Gus Puopolo
Medal record
Track and field
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Men's Shot Put F20
IPC Athletics World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2015 Doha Men's Shot Put F20
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Lyon Men's Shot Put F20

Todd Hodgetts, OAM (born 23 March 1988) is an Australian athlete on the autism spectrum who won a gold medal at the 2012 London Paralympics.

Personal

Todd Hodgetts was born on 23 March 1988 in Launceston,[1] and is from Newstead.[2][3][4] He lived in Tasmania until 2011, when he moved to Canberra to improve his chances of making the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[1][5] After the London Games, he relocated to Melbourne.[6] He is studying for a certificate IV in fitness as of 2012.[1]

He has an autism spectrum disorder.[7] Other sports in which he participates include weightlifting.[1]

Athletics

Nicknamed "The Hulk",[8][9] Hodgetts specialises in the shot put.[10][11] He competes in the F20 classification.[1][12] He is coached by Gus Puopolo.[8] He works with a gymnastics coach to help with his balance and conditioning.[12] He is a member of the Newstead Harriers.[3][11]

Hodgetts started competing in athletics in shot put in 1998[1] after his brother brought home a shot put from high school and encouraged him to try it as kind of a joke.[12] At the 2004 Tasmanian Athletics Championships, he competed in the under-18 shot put event where he scored a state record with one of his throws.[11]

Hodgetts made his national team debut in 2005.[1] In 2008, he was the Australian champion in the shot put.[3] He competed at the 2009 Australian national athletics championships in Adelaide.[3] In 2009, at an Athletics South flagship interclub competition, he won the shot put with a distance of 15.43 m.[2] At the 2012 Tasmanian Track and Field Championships, he had a season's best throw of 16.04 m to win the event.[10] At the 2012 Australian Athletics Championships, he set a world record in the shot put.[1][13] At the 2012 London Paralympics, he won a gold medal in the Men's Shot Put F20 event.[14] After the Games, he underwent elbow surgery.[6]

In 2013, Hodgetts relocated to Melbourne to train under throws coach Gus Puoplo. Competing at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, he won a bronze medal in the Men's Shot Put F20.[6] He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games."[15]

At the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Hodgetts won the gold men in the Men's Shot Put F20 with a championship record of 15.83 m. After winning the gold medal, Hodgetts said: "People wrote me off after London. I had two surgeries and people were saying that I couldn’t come back, it’s amazing that I have. The faith that my coach, and Athletics Australia, and the team at the VIS had in me made me confident that I could and it’s awesome." [16] On 13 February 2016 at the Briggs Athletics Classic in Hobart, Tasmania, he threw the shot put 16.33 m to break the world record of 16.24 m for the Men's F20 that he set at the 2012 Paralympic Games.[17]

Recognition

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Results for Todd Hodgetts from the International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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