Discipline: Para Alpine Skiing
Paralympic Participation: Vancouver 2010, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022
Achievements: Achievements: 2017 Gold medal in combined and 2019 bronze medal in slalom at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships
Medal awarded in: 2022

Four-time Winter Paralympian Mitchell Gourley started skiing with heis family as a eight year at Mt Buller. At fifteen he made his Australian national team debut.

He has won a slew of World Cup podium medals throughout his career and made his Paralympic debut in Vancouver 2010 where he placed 10th in the Super-G standing event.

In 2013 he had an outstanding World Cup season where he collected one gold and four silvers. In. the following World Cup season he won two gold, three silver, and one bronze medal.

At Sochi competing Gourley finished 5th in the Men’s super combined and 7th in the Men’s downhill.

All his training and dedication paid off when he won the gold medal in the Super-Combined at the 2017 IPC Alpine World Championships in Italy and capped off the 2016/17 World Cup season winning the Crystal Globe in giant slalom and second place overall. 

For these achievements he was presented with the Para Performance of the Year Award at the 2017 Australian Institute of Sport Performance Awards. 

During the next World Cup tour of 2017/2018, Gourley finished in second place in the overall men’s standings, repeating his performance from the previous season.

His best Paralympic campaign came at PyeongChang 2018, where he came 5th in the Super Combined, 6th in the Slalom, 8th in the Giant Slalom, and 12th in the Super-G. At these Games he was the team co-captain with Joany Badenhorst at the 2018 Winter Paralympics.

At the 2019 IPC Alpine World Championships in Slovenia he won the bronze medal in the Slalom. 

He initially took a deliberately extended break after breaking his right wrist in a nasty crash at another event at these World Championships. However his “long-service leave” turned into two years and 10 months away from international competition courtesy of COVID-19. 
Gourley was the opening Ceremony flag bearer with teammate Mel Perinne for the Beijing Winter Paralympics. He came into his fourth and final Paralympics at Beijing 2022 with minimal training opportunities under his belt. 
Amid his competitive career, Gourley has been an Athlete Representative on the World Para-alpine Skiing Sport Technical Committee and has a Master of Business (Sport Management) from Deakin University in Melbourne after earlier completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne in 2014.

In 2022, he was elected as a member of the IPC Athletes' Council and Paralympics Australia Athlete Commission.