How Pollard Went From Party Boy To Australian Team Captain

Published Wed 15 Oct 2025

Courtesy Paralympics Australia 

Sean Pollard’s leadership of the Australian Paralympic Team at Milano Cortina 2026 will reflect the complex experience and knowledge he has gained throughout three defining periods of his adult life.  

As a carefree young surfer living in the nation’s south-west, Pollard chased the best waves and partied like there was no tomorrow – until there very nearly wasn’t.  

After acquiring his impairment, still fuelled by a cavalier spirit, he channelled his energy towards the snow instead of surf and became a 2018 Paralympian.  

Now, aged 34 and a husband and father, Pollard is equipped with a profound appreciation of opportunity, sacrifice and what’s really important in life.  

It is this level of understanding that made Pollard the stand-out candidate for captain of the Australian Paralympic Team for the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games. He was informed of his appointment by Chef de Mission Ben Troy.  

The Para-snowboarder will captain a team of potentially 15 athletes, one of Australia’s biggest teams in the 50 years since the first Winter Games, in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, in 1976. And, he will do it with the all-guns-blazing approach he has vowed to apply to this stage of his sport career, which has already taken him from Finland to Argentina and from the Australian Snowys to the Canadian Rockies. 

“It’s exciting. I’m stoked to be selected,” Pollard said. “A little bit surprised, but I felt like I was a good candidate. 

“My approach for these Games is to go all-in. Obviously, my first Games was a while ago now. I’m a bit older, got a bit more experience and I just want to make the most of every opportunity that comes up this time around.” 

Troy said he looked forward to working with Pollard to ensure the team functioned strongly as a collective.  

“We’ll likely have athletes in four different sports at Milano Cortina; Para-snowboard, Para-alpine skiing and the two Nordic sports, Para-biathlon and Para-cross country,” he said.  

“Within those groups there is already a strong spirit. But, as the Australian Paralympic Team, they will all come together for the privilege – and carry the responsibility – of representing our nation to the very best of their abilities. 

“Team leadership plays a key role in helping develop team culture and I have no doubt that Sean, through his experiences on and off the snow, and through the approach he has taken into this campaign, will do an amazing job helping to create the best possible performance environment for everyone to excel.” 

The teenage Pollard would probably have laughed at the suggestion. Back then, his motivation was to ride the breaks around Margaret River and save his apprentice electrician wages to fund exotic international surf safaris.  

“I was living that surfer lifestyle, partying and having a good time,” he said. “I’d miss days of work if the surf was good.” 

Fun times, perhaps. But it wasn’t to last. In October 2014, on a surfing trip to Esperance in WA with his now-wife Claire, Pollard was attacked by two sharks. He lost his left arm, his right hand and suffered deep lacerations to both legs. 

After surviving multiple major surgeries, he spent weeks in hospital and in extensive therapy, including targeted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, occupational therapy and physiotherapy to return full functionality to his legs. 

The following year, on a winter trip to Canada, Pollard gave snowboarding a go, loved the similar sensation to surfing and emailed Paralympics Australia to ask about opportunities. Within a few weeks he was at a training camp at Perisher and, by 2017, he was competing on the world circuit.  

A year later, the one-time beach bum was on the Australian Paralympic Winter Team for the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, where he finished fifth in the banked slalom and ninth in snowboard cross.  

“I’m definitely a different human being these days,” he said.  

“I guess going through what I did and all the lessons you learn along the way is all part of growing as a person.  

“With the shark attack, I’d think about where I’d been up until I was 23 and what I was doing. I was in hospital, just lying there for hours and hours, looking over my life and thinking about it all. 

“That’s where the maturity comes into it. Whereas for a younger guy it’s more about having fun, it’s still about having fun now, but, as you grow as a person, things just become a little bit more meaningful. It makes the experience a little bit different, I guess.  

“I still have that same energy inside of me as the young surfer that would go after everything, but I channel it into better things nowadays.” 

Like being a father to daughter Mila.  

“All athletes make sacrifices. But as a parent, you really need to make the most of your opportunities because you’re leaving your family at home,” he said of the long stretches of time away.  

“So those sacrifices have to be worth it at the end of the day. You’re a leader of the family and you have to put everything in.  

“I kind of look at the Para-team like that, as a bit of a family, especially with the snow sports because it’s such a small group.” 

In a way, Pollard was forced to reflect as he spent those hours in hospital after his life changed forever. However, he said: “Nowadays, I still take that time for reflection. I keep a training journal, which I write in.  

“I kind of zoom out a little bit on everything that’s going on. It’s just a good way to keep a bit of perspective on what’s really important in life.” 


Gallery