Despite retiring from the Tour seven years ago, David Palmer will be back in Games action for the sixth straight time since 1998, a streak dating back to Kuala Lumpur in 1998, when the sport was first added to the program. The 41-year-old phenomenon, winner of a record eight medals and the only double gold medalist in 2014, will be bidding for 2018 success with Zac Alexander in the Men’s Doubles, where they are the fifth seeds.
It speaks volumes about the extraordinary abilities of Palmer that in 2018, just after his 41st birthday, he is still regarded as one of Australia’s finest squash players.
Winner of four British Opens, two World Opens, a Super Series Final, Silver medalist at the 2016 World Doubles Championships and 8 time medalist at the Commonwealth Games - David Palmer’s pedigree in the game of squash cannot be questioned.
Biography:
David Palmer has been Australia’s top squash player for most of this millennium. Palmer topped the world rankings for the first time in September 2001, two months after becoming the first Australian for twenty years to win the British Open title.
The supreme sportsman, who turned pro in 1995, has recorded a series of notable milestones in his illustrious career: In September 2008, he reached his 50th PSA World Tour final at the Merritt Properties Open in Baltimore, USA - and in August 2010 completed ten full years in the world’s top ten!
Notable earlier highlights in Palmer's career include winning the World Open crown in dramatic style in 2002 in his then adopted home town of Antwerp in Belgium – then, in 2006, in his third World Open final, recovering from a two-game deficit to defeat Gregory Gaultier in Egypt to win the title for a second time.
In 2004, Palmer joined a select band of three-times British Open champions when he successfully defended his 2003 title, defeating the then world champion Amr Shabana in the final in Nottingham. Four years later, Palmer clinched a fourth British Open trophy, saving match-balls against local hero James Willstrop in the final to win the historic event's most dramatic final after five games and 111 minutes.
With little more to prove, Palmer returned to his homeland in August 2008 to compete in the Australian Open - a title he had yet to win. The country's famed player did not disappoint, beating Kiwi Kashif Shuja in the final to put his name on the trophy alongside fellow Australian players such as Geoff Hunt, Chris Dittmar and Rodney and Brett Martin.
In 2010 Palmer secured a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games and in 2011 the dogged Aussie clocked up the 27th Tour title of his career after winning the Rocky Mountain Open in Canada - a record amongst his contemporaries in the current world’s elite. Later in 2011, Palmer was in action in the National Bank Financial Group Open in Montreal, where the second seed recorded his 55th appearance in a Tour final prevailing in a 92-minute semi-final against former Englishman Alister Walker.
2014 saw Palmer win 2 Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and a Silver medal at the 2016 World Doubles Championships in Australia.
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