Snow Australia CEO Update

Dear Snow Australia community,

With the 2022 Australian winter now behind us, it is timely to write and reflect on what has been an exciting, first full domestic winter season in three years. Many of our members have had the opportunity to enjoy Australian mountains again and practice the sports we love the most, on the snow.

Equally our pathways, the resorts and club programs have largely returned to full capacity compared to the huge challenges of the previous years. The efforts of the snow community produced a spectacular domestic season marked by exciting events, successful new initiatives and a renewed enthusiasm for winter sports. 

The return of FIS & National Events

The return of FIS Alpine events saw National Champions and National Junior Champions crowned in Giant Slalom and Slalom at Perisher - the first Alpine events in over two years to have international athletes competing down under. The Snow Australia Children’s Carnival also returned in 2022, reasserting the importance of developing fundamentally skilled skiers to help promote the growth of young athletes and continue our talent identification within the sport pathway.

Mt Buller welcomed back mogul skiing competitions with the Junior National Mogul Championship, giving developing athletes who had not competed for close to three years the opportunity to return to competition. It was a great lead in to the Australian Mogul Championships at Perisher where the iconic “Toppa’s Dream” hosted athletes from Australia, Japan, Great Britain, USA, The Netherlands, Korea and Austria.. In a similar vein, the return of the ABOM Mogul Challenge showed the international mogul community how much passion and energy the resort has for the sport, with an impressive mix of international and local talents thrilled to be back on the Chamois course. 

The Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross communities came together for events hosted at Mt Hotham in late August, including FUTURES, the FIS JNR SBX Series and the return of Australia/New Zealand Cup (ANC) events was inspiring to see, bringing together all levels of our pathways from our emerging talents through to the national team athletes. 

Finally, cross-country skiing also enjoyed a successful return to competition after a two-year hiatus, crowning new National Champions at Falls Creek after brilliant races held on world class tracks.

A winter of new event initiatives

National events aside, the return of a full domestic season also gave us the opportunity to introduce new competition formats and additional opportunities for development within the Snow Australia pathway. I would like to personally congratulate everyone who participated in the inaugural FIS Junior Snowboard Cross series, sponsored by the Chumpy Pullin Foundation, a spectacular initiative that provided much needed competition opportunities to the next generation of snowboard cross athletes. 

With the series planned to return even bigger and better next year, I would like to thank all the parents, resorts and the National Snowboard Committee for their amazing efforts. Above all, I am especially grateful to the Chumpy Foundation and its partners for their support in making our vision a successful reality, and for their enthusiasm in extending a collaboration that will provide additional opportunities in the next few years.

Snow Australia launched the inaugural Park & Pipe Talent Combine in Jindabyne, bringing together 21 of Australia’s brightest Park & Pipe prospects for a three-day camp at the National Snowsports Training Centre (NSTC), and on snow at Perisher Resort. Athletes were assessed for skill across a multitude of areas under the eyes of world class experts, coaches and Winter Olympians. 

The ‘Tess Sesh’ with Olympic bronze medalist Tess Coady was also a highlight of our FUTURES program, thanks to the collaboration with our Women of Winter initiative. Having young female skiers and snowboarders coming together to train and learn from such an inspiring young champion provided a tremendous mentoring opportunity and was yet another example of Snow Australia’s plan to break down barriers within the pathway and ensure that different levels of the sport can get together and bring value to each other.  

Alpine Skills assessments were rolled out across the resorts with coaches and athletes able to complete a full season of skill development in line with the National Alpine Strategy. 

The Snow Australia Next Generation Para Alpine Development camp was designed according to similar principles, to introduce athletes to the Para Alpine pathway and provide an opportunity to come together and experience the many elements of Para Alpine training as they work towards their goals of developing their potential and progressing into the high-performance arena.

Interschools are back

The cancellation of the Interschools National Championships competition in 2020 and 2021 was particularly hard to take for the Australian snow community. Many young athletes missed out on their favourite opportunity to compete and socialise with like-minded athletes from all over the country, enthusiastically enjoying the sport in the spirit of camaraderie and fun.

Finally, this year, thousands of athletes from almost 300 primary and secondary schools converged in Perisher to compete for National titles in Alpine, Snowboard Cross, Ski Cross, Slopestyle, Snowboard GS, Cross Country, Moguls and Multiclass events. This was the culmination of a full calendar of Interschools competition at resorts across Australia including regional events at Thredbo and Falls Creek with Victorian and NSW State Championships at Mt.Buller and Perisher respectively. It was amazing to see young students back on snow again, participating with the traditional joy and excitement that the Interschool competition has been renowned for. The overwhelmingly positive feedback from the snow community makes me confident that we will continue to grow participation rates over the coming years as we recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

All in all, it has been a busy and exciting winter. I’d like to extend my congratulations to the resorts in particular and clubs for their tremendous work and for the way they responded to the difficult challenges and changes imposed upon them over the last few years. I would also like to acknowledge the work of all the program managers, coaches, athletes and also our fantastic volunteers who made this fantastic season possible.

NSTC update

The National Snowsport Training Centre development project remains on track for completion in early 2023. There were some unforeseen delays due to widely known supply chain issues and delays in moving a high voltage powerline, due to be completed on the one day it snowed heavily in Jindabyne for the season! Despite this, the NSTC Park saw significant usage over winter with community riders along with the many of the world's best athletes using it for the first time. 

The next phase of the project, the construction of the John Langley Hancock Building is in full swing now and is expected to be at lockup stage before Christmas. The Hancock family’s support, alongside the NSW Government Grants, will ensure this world class facility will be fully operational next year and provide tremendous benefits to multiple generations of Australian snow sports athletes. 

International Season Insurance update

Unfortunately the insurance market is still suffering from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two a half years, and many policies which were previously relied on for international travel and competition are no longer available. 

It is a frustrating situation, and one without a straightforward solution at this time. We have been working with our international federation colleagues along with our insurance partners to find suitable covers and also explored ideas and leads provided by some of our members, who reached out trying to help - something we are very grateful for. 

At this point we have managed to identify an insurance policy which will be able to support our National Team, Institute and Emerging Talent Program athletes and we are looking forward to sharing the details on the application process shortly. 

There are alternatives - some of them available on our competition insurance page - but I acknowledge that they might not suit all circumstances, or meet the requirements of all our members. We will continue to explore possible alternatives and ensure that, if they exist, they are shared broadly with the snow sports community, particularly to support those eligible to travel and compete overseas this northern winter.

Kindest regards,
Michael Kennedy
Snow Australia CEO