Tom Killin

Who is Tom Killin?

Tom Killin is a British multi-sport Paralympian. Killin was paralysed following a traffic accident at the age of 17.

Killin won two medals in fencing at the 1970 Commonwealth Games. He also represented Scotland and Britain in disability table tennis and basketball for 12 years, including winning a World Championship silver medal in singles table tennis. Killin made his first Paralympic appearance as a wheelchair fencer at the 1980 Summer Games where he won two silver medals, and also competed in the 1984 Summer Paralympics.

He first joined the Braehead Curling Club in 2003. In 2005 he represented Scotland at the World Championships in a team that also contained Frank Duffy, Ken Dickson, Angie Malone and Michael McCreadie. They won the gold medal and all five athletes were selected to compete for Britain in the first Paralympic wheelchair curling event held at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, Italy.

During the Paralympic tournament Britain won their group games against the teams from Denmark, Sweden, Italy and the United States, and lost the matches against Switzerland, Norway and Canada. Their record of four wins and three loses meant they finished the group stage in second place and advanced to the medal rounds. they beat Sweden in the semifinal and went onto to face Canada in the final. Trailing 6–3 in the final end skip Frank Duffy had an opportunity with the last stone of the tournament for an open hit of a Canadian stone that would have scored four for Britain and won them the gold medal. He threw too hard and the shot tracked an inch wide allowing Canada to score one and win 7-4 leaving Killin and the rest of the British team as silver medalists.