Country Boy Carving Up The Slopes

Courtesy Paralympics Australia

It’s hard to think of someone less likely to have become a Winter Paralympian than Josh Hanlon. 

He grew up in a town of 300 people in the NSW Central West, had two great uncles who played rugby league for Australia and was a member of the GWS Giants AFL Academy team as a teenager. His favourite hobbies are gym, shooting and motorbike riding.  

Yet, on slopes in Germany, Switzerland, Norway and elsewhere, Hanlon has been developing into one of the world’s top Para-alpine skiers, a Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games representative, Paralympics Australia’s Rookie of the Year that same year and, early in 2025, winning his first Para-alpine skiing World Cup medal. He’s now on track to make the Australian Paralympic Team for Milano Cortina. 

“It kind of feels like I’ve got two lives where I go home to family and friends and work and I’m in the gym constantly thinking about being on snow – it’s a very long way away from the snow,” Hanlon said. 

The tall and lanky sportsman grew up playing tennis, swimming and athletics. He was super competitive, he said, and seemed on track for a career in Australian rules football.  

However, in the space of a few hours in 2018, things changed. Hanlon played football, won best-on-ground and celebrated that night with his team. He woke up with what he thought was a stomach bug. When the illness persisted, he drove to Wagga Wagga Base Hospital and, within a couple of hours, he was in a coma, where he stayed for much of the next week.  

“I guess for me it’s kind of interesting that it was so sudden,” he said. “You’re in a really good health and then it just … They said it was super rare.” 

Hanlon had endured a severe bacterial infection which led to toxic shock and sepsis, resulting in him becoming a double below-knee amputee and an amputee of his right hand at the wrist.  

“It took a while to get over not being able to play footy,” he said. “But I was keen to get back to competing in some capacity. I was on the lookout for a new sport because I just really loved training and playing.” 

Skiing captured Hanlon’s attention, drawn in by the feeling of freedom of “gliding along, using the edges and carving turns. You don’t feel like you’re held back at all”. 

Hanlon competes in a sit-ski, colloquially called ‘a bucket’, and makes for a spectacular site tearing down the slope. But it’s the day to day grind he enjoys most.  

“Just getting better in the gym and then getting better on snow and seeing how those two correspond,” he said.  

“A lot of dedication is needed to succeed, a lot of hard work. It takes a bit of forward thinking and planning, setting some goals along the way. Getting that dialled in now is important.  

“I’m very proud to be a Paralympian. From being in hospital and realising that you’re disabled and realising there is a pathway and just giving it everything I had and being able to make it, it was really cool.”