In 1991, McNicholl won his second World Wheelchair Weightlifting Championships at the University of Rhode Island, US, where he set a world record of . McNicholl's gold medal came at the 1992 Barcelona Games in the Men's Up To 90 kg event with his world record lift of , for which he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia. He later said of the win: "Although placed in other Paralympics (before '92), I was inexperienced and didn't quite know how to handle the pressure." In 1994, he set another world record when he lifted , and won his third World Wheelchair Weightlifting Championships in Melbourne, Australia. In 1995, he competed at the European Weightlifting Championships in Strasbourg, France, and won a gold medal with a lift of . He was coached by Blagoy Blagoev, and advised by Olympic runner Herb Elliott, who he has known since the 1980s. In 1995, he was an Australian Institute of Sport Athlete with a Disability scholarship holder.