Sean Egan was born in 1942 in county Clare, Ireland, where he spent his youth. After six years of monastic life, he returned to academe and completed a degree in literature at Dublin University. He then went on to study psychology at l’Université de Paris. From there, he pursued his studies at the University of Oregon at Eugene, where he completed a Ph. D. in Sports Psychology. He has been a professor at the University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics since 1977, specializing in Health.
During his years at the University of Oregon, Sean became friends with running legend Steve Prefontaine – at one time “Pre” held all US records between 2,000 and 10,000 metres. Many of those records were set at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. Prefontaine’s life came to a tragic end when he was killed in a car crash shortly before the Montreal Olympics of 1976.
Sean is a passionate health enthusiast with a penchant for daring to attempt the impossible. Adept at many sports from boxing to soccer, he gravitates easily to endurance events where he can practice Joe Henderson’s LSDapproach - long, slow distance. Sean’s training methods sometimes tend to extremes: one cold, spring day, a well-meaning motorist abruptly stopped his car to come to the aid of a person apparently drowning in the Mississippi River near Almonte – the “victim” was simply Sean doing a training run in the river, wearing a wetsuit! During his years at the University of Oregon, Sean completed a walk for cancer research from Eugene to San Francisco – a total of 640 miles, averaging 39 miles a day. On another occasion, he finished a 100 mile walk for heart research in just over 25 hours – his only two companions were forced to drop out after 50 and 64 miles respectively. Sean is also a man with a social conscience (a holdover from the hippy values of his younger years). In 1993, he accompanied six students on a march for children’s rights – they walked from Toronto to the front steps of Tabaret Hall at the University of Ottawa.
Sean has another passion: mountain climbing. In 1998, along with a colleague, he took a group of his students to Nepal where they climbed to the “base camp” level of Mount Everest (roughly 18,000 feet). In the spring of 2000, Sean returned to Everest to work on a few research projects.
During the winter of 1998-1999, Sean had another of his dreams. He decided that he would attempt to cross the continent (most of it) on his bicycle. Starting off on the west coast, in his old university town of Eugene, he would pedal his way back to his current home town of Almonte, Ontario.
