Chasing Winter with Aussie Alpine Snowboarder Millie Bongiorno

For all Australian athletes, the challenge of spending extended periods of time overseas is tough, but for some of them is even more difficult.

Millie Bongiorno is Australia’s only Alpine Snowboard athlete currently competing on the World Cup circuit.

While being an individual athlete may be tough, Bongiorno attests her resilience and independence to spending time solo.

“I have made so many friends on the circuit that it almost doesn’t feel like I’m an individual athlete anymore. I’m so grateful and feel so lucky to be travelling and working towards my dreams,’ Bongiorno said.

“It can definitely get lonely at times, but I actually think I have grown so much as a person because I have had to travel alone.

“I’ve become so much more confident in myself and because I’m an individual athlete I have been lucky enough to get to know so many different people from countries all over the world.” she said.

Bongiorno trains with the Swiss National Snowboard team, providing her the team environment and chance to constantly be challenged.

“I was so nervous to join them (Swiss team) for the first time last season but they really did welcome me with open arms and now I feel like I really am part of their team,’ Bongiorno said.

“The language barrier can be difficult at times, but they have been teaching me German and I love teaching them some Aussie slang too.

“I consider the team as a second family, even though it is an individual sport, everyone on this team wants the other to do well and I think we all really help each other do just that.

“If I want to become the best snowboarder I can be and become a strong contender on the World Cup circuit, then it’s these guys I need to learn from and I have already seen my snowboarding improve in leaps and bounds,” she said.

After a bout of injuries that saw Bongiorno experience an interrupted 2019 season, she has returned to the sport and achieved some personal best results, including a fifth place at the Europa Cup in Lenzerheide, Switzerland

“I really had to reassess the way I was training, and my trainer and physio helped me to identify certain aspects that I was missing and how that could have led me to get stress fractures back in 2019.

“I can almost be grateful for my injury because it forced me to look at parts of my training and preparation that weren’t as effective as what I thought.

“Now I have implemented a really well rounded and diverse training regime – and with all these adjustments, combined with my experience with the Swiss national team, I’ve been able to push my limits further than I knew I could.

“I’m really excited to see how much further I can go with this, and from my recent results it’s clear I am moving in the right direction, step by step.

“Most of all, I want to have runs that I can be proud of, knowing that I have it my all and left nothing behind,” she said.