Paul Murray
1977 -
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Discipline: Cross Country Skiing Paul first got into cross-country skiing through family and through scouts. He skied every weekend in winter with his family. His first competition experience was at Interschools. He was the Australian Junior Champion from 1995 to 1997 and was also a 10-time Australian Cross-Country Champion. He started racing overseas as an 18-year-old and competed in the World Juniors. Those first couple of years of traveling, training, and competing overseas were a huge learning experience. He describes being lucky that they introduced sprints to international competitions, which he did well in. Having just missed selection for the 2002 Winter Olympics for the sprint after just starting to race in World Cups. he made the decision to base himself in Europe for the next 10 seasons in Sweden and other parts of Scandinavia. During his career, he made 45 World Cup starts over 10 years and competed at five World Championships. In 2005, Paul scored Australia’s first-ever cross-country World Cup points in Germany finishing 29th in the classic sprint, the best World Cup individual result of his career and a moment he recalls as the biggest results highlight of his skiing career. His best finish in a team sprint event was 16th place in 2009. Later that season he went on to post the best results ever by an Australian at a Senior World Championships in Obersdorf, Germany, finishing 31st in the classic sprint. Paul’s best finish at a World Championships team sprint was 14th in 2007. Paul competed in the Torino and Vancouver Winter Olympics. His best Olympic finish was in Vancouver, where he placed 20th in the Team Sprint with Ben Sim. His best individual finish was 51st in Torino in the Freestyle Sprint. On reflection, the biggest highlight of his skiing career is the friendships, travel, and fun he had. Paul served on the AOC Athletes’ Commission from 2010-2014 and held the role of deputy chair of the Commission from 2012-2014. |
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