Growing up in Colorado (USA), Nick Cleaver got his start in skiing when he joined the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club at the age of eight.

Being the youngest member of the club’s Freestyle team (by a long shot) Nick had to push himself hard to keep up. Supported by U.S. Coach Tim Hadfield, he maintained a trajectory of quick progression through his teenage years and took every opportunity afforded him by his family and the Australian Ski Team to improve.

In 1991, then just 16 years old, Cleaver became the youngest ever winner of the ABOM Mogul Challenge, the legendary race hosted at Mt Buller which celebrated 30 years in 2018. That win started an amazing run of five straight victories, which still stands as a record for the most consecutive titles won by any athlete at Mt Buller. 

The following year, not yet 17, Cleaver had another breakthrough moment when he was selected to the Australian team for the 1992 Albertville Olympic Games, alongside Adrian Costa. Cleaver and Costa became the first Australian athletes to compete at an Olympic Moguls event. Cleaver made it to the final and eventually placed 11th, a result which would stand as the best Australian result in Moguls at the Olympic Games until Dale Begg-Smith’s gold medal at the 2006 Games in Torino.

In 1994 Cleaver participated in his second Olympic Winter Games - becoming a two-time Olympian at only 18 years of age. Again he made it to the final of the Olympic Moguls event, this time finishing in 16th place.

Overall Nick Cleaver collected 74 World Cup starts, mostly in Moguls (49, of which were in Dual Moguls). He also competed in Aerials (20 starts), Acro/Ski Ballet (3) and Freestyle Combined (2). He recorded 12 top-10 World Cup results across Moguls, Aerials and Combined, and participated in four FIS Freestyle World Championships between 1991-1997.

After retiring from skiing in 1997, he did terrain park design and coached at a program in Falls Creek called ‘Air & Style’. He also obtained a helicopter licence, which allowed him to fly helicopters in Papua New Guinea. Cleaver is also a father - by his own admission the highlight of his life after ski racing - and owns a successful small business.