Daniell did not think of himself as disabled until he heard that Sydney was hosting the Paralympics; he began training in 1997 after his eye doctor confirmed that he would be able to qualify for the games. He was originally a triathlete but switched to running after colliding with parked cars and swimming poorly. He won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Men's Marathon T13 event. He had an Australian Institute of Sport athletics scholarship from 2001 to 2002.