Zeke Steggall and Maria Despas among the latest athletes recognised with the Snow Australia Medal
Published Fri 23 Jul 2021
Snow Australia is pleased to announce the next six recipients of the Snow Australia Medal, a group that includes Anthony Bonaccurso (para-alpine), Maria Despas (moguls), John Fletcher (snowboard) Alastair Mars (para-alpine), Matthew Nicholls (para-alpine) and Zeke Steggall (snowboard).
With the exception of Fletcher, who was just 16 at the time, the other five athletes all made their Olympic and Paralympic debuts in Nagano 1998. Those were the second Winter Games held in Japan, after Sapporo hosted the event in 1972, and marked the first time snowboarding was included in the Olympic program, with medals awarded in halfpipe and giant slalom.
The discipline's journey towards Olympic inclusion had not been an easy run. Snowboarding was still considered ‘fringe’ and ‘alternative’ at the time, and many riders were not keen for the International Ski Federation (FIS) to take control of the sport, after the International Olympic Committee had recognised it as the official international governing body over the established International Snowboarding Federation (ISF).
Other issues emerged around qualification criteria and sponsorships. Big brands such as Bonfire Snowboarding and Burton launched lawsuits against the United States Ski and Snowboarding Association (USSA) to secure an open qualification process and ensure snowboarders could qualify for the Games without having to give up other lucrative, non-FIS sanctioned events during the year. In short, snowboarders wanted to retain control over their sport and, as Jake Burton was quoted saying, "The snowboard industry had nothing to do with the Olympics.”
Snowboarding eventually made it to the Games in Nagano, but its teething problems were not over. Norwegian Terje Håkonsen, possibly one of the most influential athletes in the history of the sport, declined to participate due to the ongoing FIS/ISF controversy.
"I remember getting to Nagano and they spelled 'snowboard' wrong," Jake Burton famously said during a 2013 interview. Snowboarder Magazine published a story titled ‘Can we give the Olympics back?”
When the first day of competition finally arrived, the weather was miserable and the mood indecipherable. And yet, amidst all this turmoil, the sole representative on the Australian snowboarding team had a much more positive approach to the event.
“The Olympics were always a goal of mine,” Zeke Steggall said. “But even now, I still meet people who ask me, why did you go to FIS?”
“For me the Olympics were the pinnacle of all sport. I remember once when I was 17, I was still skiing back then, my coach had gathered all the top athletes from the little French region where we were and he started asking - Who wants to go to the Olympics?
“And I raised my hand, of course. So he asked me what discipline, and I said - Windsurfing!
“That was really my favorite sport at the time.”
Steggall said that even though Olympic snowboarding had a difficult start, he had always known the sport would eventually achieve success and become one of the highlights of the Winter Games.
“I knew it from the start because snowboarding was so popular and it was literally everywhere. What I wasn’t expecting was for the focus to move so much towards the freestyle and the park and pipe disciplines. I certainly didn’t expect alpine snowboarding to drop off so much,” he said.
Despite being arguably more famous for his success in snowboard cross, where he managed to win a bronze at the 1999 World Championships and four FIS World Cup gold medals, Steggall’s record in alpine snowboarding is equally impressive. His first taste of success had come in 1992, way before FIS was around, with a victory in an ISF slalom in Bormio, Italy. He followed up that result with 30 more World Cup podiums, despite being plagued by injuries for most of his career.
“First I broke my right ankle training in GS. Then in Livigno, Italy, at the 2000 FIS World Cup Finals I got injured badly again. That time I probably had about 20 fractures in my left foot! That was unfortunate because I was coming in second place overall and I could have still won the World Cup, but I ended up third instead.
“I continued racing alpine because I wanted to qualify for Salt Lake City, but at that point I was enjoying snowboard cross more and it had become my favourite discipline. Unfortunately it wasn’t in the Olympics, yet!”
Steggall still has vivid memories from his Olympic debut in Nagano. More accustomed with a professional sporting environment than with the scale of an Olympic Games, he described the Olympics as ‘something different’.
“Up until 1998, snowboarding was more like tennis or golf. We were professional athletes, you had to find your sponsor and pay for everything.
“Going to an event like the Olympics was a massive eye opener. All of a sudden you had team doctors, physios, media officers. Everything was organised for you. It was really what I expected such a big event to be, and it was great, but a total change for me.”
Steggall was able to participate in the Opening Ceremony and to stay in Nagano after his event was over, attending other competitions as a spectator. He tried to make the most of his Olympic experience, which was made even more memorable by his sister Zali’s bronze medal in alpine skiing.
“I was in the grandstand when Zali got her medal and I was even able to hang out with her between the two runs. It was so special and an event that I will never forget,” he said.
For all his Olympic memories, it’s not surprising that, when asked about the achievements he is most proud of, Steggall’s mind goes back to his victories.
“The Olympics were a very special moment, but the pinnacle of my career for me was winning the slalom in Bormio in 1992 and the FIS World Cup in Tignes in 2001, when I won in Snowboard Cross after that terrible injury. To be able to come back and still get on top of the podium was great.”
Another snow sports pioneer on that Nagano 1998 Australian Olympic team was Maria Despas, the first Australian female mogul skier to become an Olympian who in 2001 would eventually also become the first Australian freestyle moguls skier to win a medal (silver) at the World Championships in Whistler, Canada.
If snowboarding was moving its first steps into the Olympic arena in 1998, moguls skiing was already well established, with two gold medals officially assigned after its debut as a demonstration sport in Calgary.
“Freestyle skiing at that time was the flavour of the day,” Despas said.
“Tours, events, sponsorship and television had brought much attention to the sport. One of its strengths was being an arena-type of sport where you can see the entire course from any one vantage point, and this was something new back then.
“The inclusion of mogul skiing into the Olympics was a legitimising game changer for the sport and increased my motivation enormously, as it really is a pinnacle event,” she said.
Despite coming from a somewhat different sporting background, Despas had a similar reaction to Steggall when confronted with the scale of the Games for the first time.
“The entire Olympic experience is quite overwhelming, from uniforming, media attention and crowd appeal, strict security measures, dropping controls, the Olympic Village and more.
“There's nothing about the Olympic experience that is like any other event, and the whole time you're told to just treat it like any other event!”
Another thing that Despas had in common with Steggall were the injuries, which significantly affected her ability to perform on the international circuit. It was with enormous joy that after 11 years and more than 100 World Cup starts, Despas finally managed to make the podium for the first time in her career in Whistler.
“The silver medal at the 2001 World Championships is by far my career highlight, and the timing of that result, a year before the Olympics, couldn't have been better,” she said.
“After years of working through the trenches I was finally seen to have real potential as a top contender, not only to myself, but sponsors and selectors alike. Unfortunately, a career-altering training injury in Australia just months out from the 2002 Olympics proved too much to overcome, greatly affecting my performance in Salt Lake City.”
Steggall and Despas would be teammates again at the 2002 Winter Olympics, their last Games before retiring from competitive snow sports and starting new families.
Steggall’s first son Joey was born in 2003, when his father had already transitioned from racing to coaching and was training an international professional team in Europe. The 12 athletes on the team, including Australian Olympian Johanna Shaw, managed to score 28 World Cup wins in two years. With Joey successfully dedicating himself to alpine skiing (he became a Youth Olympian at Lausanne 2020) it’s now up to Steggall’s younger daughter to follow in her father’s footsteps after making the switch from skiing to snowboarding a few years ago.
Similarly for Despas, life after retirement meant taking on the new challenge of raising two children after so many years spent living on the road.
“I welcomed the new life,” she said. “But you miss the many close friendships you've made along the way and I feel that's the hardest part.”
“I was commuting from Sydney to Colorado and taught our two children to ski from an early age, so to this day we still enjoy the sport. But it has become a novelty sport, as our opportunity to get on snow is limited these days.”
Like other Snow Australia Medal recipients before them, Despas and Zeggall are grateful to be recognised with an award that aims to connect the younger generation with the great athletes who have preceded them, and inspire them to emulate their achievements.
“I think it’s important that the young athletes realise where it all started and that Australia has had a pretty rich past in the sport,” Steggall said.
“Skiing will always be a big part of my life and my years with the Australian Ski Team are a special part of my journey,” Despas said.
“I think it's great that the Australian snow community supports these legacy awards as a way of recognising our collective success, not only for the athletes, but the community at large.”
