Athlete Bio
Sean Donnelly
Born and raised in Willoughby, OH, a suburb of Cleveland, Sean attended Willoughby South High School, where, he says, "I only lettered in one sport as an athlete in high school, my one and only year of track and field as a senior. I actually spent most of my high school career playing the tuba in both our schools wind symphony, and marching band." Sean found a love of lifting his junior year when going out for the wrestling team, and started to bloom as an athlete. He recalls, "During the offseason, my coach showed us how to deadlift, squat and bench properly. I fell in love with lifting, which ended up with me bulking up [from 170] to 230 pounds by the start of my senior year, and kickstarted my track career."
Sean first started throwing hammer while at Mount Union University, where he earned a degree in Exercise Science while minoring in Coaching and Philosophy. While with the Purple Raiders, Sean would earn eight All-American honors and become a four-time NCAA DIII National Champion. From there, he attended and competed for the University of Minnesota as a graduate student in Applied Kinesiology, making his dreams of being a DI student-athlete come true.
Even in his spare time, Sean's interests center around his love of sport. He says "I can be a huge science nerd... I love learning everything I can about my sport, so I can often be found reading research from scientific journals and books about everything from weightlifting, to nutrition, to recovery. It's not often I meet other athletes with as much love for the scientific side of our sport as I have." When he is done competing as an athlete, Sean would like to stay in the sport of track and field and continue to coach, and help grow and give back to the track and field community, stating, "I'd love to be able to pass on what I've learned over the years to the next generation of athletes, hopefully helping inspire them and push the sport of track and field to new heights."
Check out the lastest on Sean by visiting his blog at: http://www.atlaspeakperformance.com/