Francis Cullimore (born 13 December 1976) is an Australian-born New Zealand former elite athlete. He is a five time multiple sporting professional & Rugby Union/league dual international. Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia, Cullimore moved to Auckland when he was 7 after his father died, settling in Northland. He grew up in

Whangārei Whangārei () is the northernmost city in New Zealand and the largest settlement of the Northland Region. It is part of the Whangarei District, created in 1989 from the former Whangarei City, Whangarei County and Hikurangi Town councils to admi ...

, New Zealand, and attended Tikipunga High School. He played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

for the

Junior Kiwis The Junior Kiwis side represents New Zealand in the sport of rugby league. They are commonly known as the Junior Kiwis, after the native bird of that name. Since 2010, they are an under-20s side, with players selected from the NRL, Intrust Sup ...

and was signed by the

Auckland Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

to a two-year scholarship. Cullimore represented New Zealand in

rugby league sevens Rugby league sevens (or simply sevens) is a seven-a-side derivative of rugby league football, which is usually a thirteen-a-side sport. The game is substantially the same as full rugby league, with some rule changes and shorter games. Sevens is ...

, playing in the Rugby League Coca-Cola World Sevens tournament, and also selected for New Zealand Māori. Cullimore then moved to Australia and played lower grades for the

Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On 13 December 1980, they were the ...

and a brief stint with

Manly Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League seaso ...

. He decided to switch codes, playing

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for the New South Wales under-21s NSW A and then moving onto super rugby with the Waratahs, debuting in 2001. He also became a dual international after making the Australian men's 7s team and represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

. He was also selected to go to the

2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

with the Australian

bobsleigh Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of 2 to 4 athletes make timed speed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobslei ...

team after a successful North American training camp. Unfortunately, a leg injury ruling him out. Cullimore then trained and fought as a

mixed martial arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

fighter turning pro with a 3–1 record. He later trained in natural body building, placing 3rd at the Australian Nationals ANB & International Natural Bodybuilding Association heavyweight divisions and appeared in the Nation's top hit TV show

Australian Ninja Warrior ''Australian Ninja Warrior'' is a sports entertainment competition spin-off of the Japanese television series '' Sasuke'' which premiered on 9 July 2017 on the Nine Network. It features hundreds of competitors attempting to complete series of o ...

in seasons 1 and 2, making the semi-finals. Francis Cullimore has since moved away from the sporting arena and now operates a landscaping business, Gardenking Landscape & Maintenance.

References

1976 births Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen Australia international rugby sevens players Australian male bobsledders Australian male bodybuilders Australian male mixed martial artists Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Junior Kiwis players Male rugby sevens players New South Wales Waratahs players New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand Māori rugby union players Rugby league players from Brisbane Rugby union players from Brisbane Rugby union wings {{NewZealand-rugbyleague-bio-stub