During his career, Mark Soyer was one of the elite Para Alpine skiers in the world, becoming a Paraympian at PyeongChang 2018 where he scored top 20 finishes in the Super G and Giant Slalom sitting classification. But even before he hung up the racing rig, Mark had the urge to pass on his expertise to newcomers both young and old as they take to adaptive skiing.
As the northern hemisphere season comes to a close, we will take a look back at the winter that was across all the disciplines which saw Australian athletes taking on the world.
An incredible week of Snowboard and Para Snowboard racing in Grasgehren, Germany saw Ben Tudhope pick up two silver medals at the World Cup, Maya Billingham achieved her career-best result with a silver medal in the Europa Cup and the pair combined to compete in a historic FIS event.
The small but tight-knit Australian Para Alpine team continues to go from strength to strength, with this week presenting another challenge and another opportunity.
Georgia Gunew first joined the Australian Para Alpine Team in September 2022 for a series of races in New Zealand. Just 16 months later she has earned her first World Cup medal, finishing third in slalom at the Veysonnez World Cup in Switzerland.
Retiring from elite level competition can be a difficult experience for any athlete and a critical moment of change, as they negotiate a new period of their life after sport.
The Snow Australia Para FUTURES event brought together seven talented new para-athletes, the Snow Australia High Performance Para Alpine National Team, guides from Disabled Wintersports Australia (DWA), Paralympics Australia and a fantastic team of classifiers.
Snow Australia recently hosted six athletes for a Para Alpine and Snowboard Development Camp in Perisher. Jimmy Jan, Jonti Diamond, Joseph Fry, Aaron McCarthy, Alex Cherny and Laura Flynn came together with Snow Australia Para Coaches for a great week on snow.
Snow Australia’s Para-Snowsport high-performance athletes came together last weekend for their pre-season induction and fitness testing at the National Snowsports Training Centre (NSTC) in Jindabyne.