Alexander James O'Connell (born 17 April 1988) is a sabre fencer who competed for Great Britain at the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

Sporting career

In 2005, O’Connell won the cadet world championship in Austria. In the following year, he was selected for the England under-20 Commonwealth team in India, where he won gold in the individual and team events. In 2007, he placed second at the Junior Men's Sabre World Cup in

Göppingen Göppingen (; or ) is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the Goeppingen (district), district Göppingen. Göppingen is home to the toy company Märklin, and it is the birthplace ...

, Germany. He competed for Great Britain at the

, where he seeded 39th, and was eliminated by Nikolay Kovalev in the first round of competition, narrowly losing 15-14. He was a three times British fencing champion, winning the sabre title at the

British Fencing Championships The British Fencing Championships are held annually to determine the British champion. The Championships are currently held at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield or the Lee Valley Athletics Centre. These championships (known as the Nationa ...

in 2005, 2006 and 2010. O'Connell was one of a group of four fencers who unsuccessfully appealed their rejection from the British team at the

London 2012 Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Personal life

O'Connell grew up in Brentwood, Essex, with a brother three years older, and a sister four years younger; both siblings also fenced. His parents, of Irish descent, are a solicitor and property developer, and a part-time teacher. Educated at Brentwood School in Essex and

Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but retains a strong interest in the arts ...

, where he studied Classics, O'Connell is now a lawyer with Freshfields Bruckhaus Derringer in London. In 2017, O'Connell married author

Ruth Gilligan Ruth Gilligan (born 12 March 1988) is an Irish writer, journalist and university lecturer, born in Dublin. Early life Gilligan's father was an accountant and her mother a speech therapist. Her brother David is ten years her senior, and the famil ...

in Ireland, after they met in college in 2008, and became engaged in 2016.

References

External links

* * * * 1988 births Living people Alumni of Churchill College, Cambridge British male fencers Olympic fencers for Great Britain Fencers at the 2008 Summer Olympics 21st-century British sportsmen {{UK-fencing-bio-stub