2018 Commonwealth Games hopeful, two-time world champion, 40 year old David Palmer, one of the most accomplished athletes in the sport’s history, is back home for a well earned break with his family.
Palmer has been extremely busy with his new position as Head Coach at Cornell University, taking up the position in October of last year. Palmer is the only Australian player /coach ever to hold such a position at an Ivy League University.
Whilst he is here he has been speaking with various organisations about opportunities for talented Australian squash players to enter Cornell’s Squash Program, as well as other US Universities.
Being an Aussie through and through, he hopes that what he has learnt and learning in his ongoing career in Squash based in the US, he can help revive and still be part of building Squash here in Australia.
Even though retiring in 2012 from the World Tour, Palmer still has a goal or 2 to complete his playing career, the first on the horizon is winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. Palmer stated, ” to win Gold on home soil is a dream I have had since a boy, it would truly be a major highlight in my career, especially as I will be 42 that year.
Palmer competed on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) tour from 1997-2011, twice reaching a number one world ranking (2001-02, 2006). During his pro career, he won the PSA Super Series finals in 2002, reached the World Tour finals 53 times and came away with the title on 27 occasions. Palmer was a two-time World Champion (2002, 2006), one of just seven athletes to claim a world title on multiple occasions, as well as a four-time British Open Champion (2001, 2003, 2004, 2008). Palmer was ranked in the top 10 of the PSA for 10 consecutive years (2000-10) before retiring from professional competition in 2010.
Internationally, Palmer captained the Australian national team six times and won a total of seven Commonwealth Game medals, including a pair of golds in men’s single and mixed doubles in 2012. He was named the nation’s Senior Athlete of the Year four times (2006, 2007, 2008, 2014), and was voted the Player of the Decade by his peers.
Over the past five years, he has run the David Palmer Squash Academy based out of Orlando, Florida. With his academy, Palmer works with multiple professional players all around the world, eight of whom rank among the top 30.
