Born to Perform Page 23
With Mickey Harte, the great Tyrone football manager, and Ger Keane in April 2011. Mickey and the Tyrone football team had come for a two-day training seminar in my clinic at the University of Limerick.
Cycling the Marmotte, July 3, 2009. After almost 8 hrs of cycling, I race the 9 miles and 21 hairpin bends to the top of Alpe d’Huez to win a gold medal for the 45- to 50-year-old category.
1 from Bob Babbitt, 25 Years of Ironman Triathlon World Championship, Oxford: Meyer and Meyer UK Ltd, 2004.
2 Babbitt, 25 Years of Ironman Triathlon World Championship.
3 From the article “Healing Hands” by Conor O’Hagan, Irish Runner, vol. 13, no. 3.
4 Ronan O’Gara: My Autobiography, Dublin: Transworld Ireland, 2009, Chapter 14.
5 Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story, London: HarperElement, 2003, p. 25.
6 Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, pp. 84–85.
About the Book
“At even the most basic level human beings want to succeed, to be part of something unique and special”
Since 1991 Gerard Hartmann has worked as a physical therapist with many of the world’s greatest athletes, including Kelly Holmes, Paula Radcliffe, Moses Kiptanui, Sonia O’Sullivan and Vivian Cheruiyot, as well as with a number of Irish rugby and GAA stars.
Before a serious injury halted his career as an athlete, he was among Ireland’s first triathlon champions, winning seven national championships between 1984 to 1991, and competing in the World Triathlon Championships and the Hawaii Ironman.
Born to Perform is the extraordinary story of how Gerard turned his life around after injury by helping others through their injuries to success at the highest levels in sport. It is a story of sport and how it teaches endurance, balance, drive and self-belief, and how it can heal.
GERARD HARTMANN operates Hartmann International Sports Injury Clinic at the University of Limerick, and also at the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten, Kenya.
“An educational, exciting and enthralling account from a man who has touched the lives of so many sports stars. A read that proves that positivity, passion and belief is paramount to success.”
-HENRY SHEFFLIN, KILKENNY SENIOR HURLING TEAM
“In this moving and inspirational read, Gerard tells how fate, courage and dedication led him through his life’s journey to the point he is now at. Much more than that, the book powerfully illustrates that life is a journey where we should seize the rudder and live each day to be the best that we can be.”
-PAULA RADCLIFFE, WOMEN’S MARATHON WORLD RECORD HOLDER