Dear Alpine Community,

While the winter has been a bit of a fizzle, our athletes’ performances certainly haven’t. From Alpine to Ski Cross, ANC to Childrens level competitions, our athletes have been taking advantage of every opportunity provided to them. Across the resorts many traditional training venues have been limited due to snow cover, however the opportunity to focus on skill development and fundamentals has been readily available with all of the clubs being flexible in their training approaches. This has been apparent in many great performances over the last weeks both here in Australia and in New Zealand.

We had a very successful ANC SX and Futures event down in Mt Hotham, which saw over 30 Australian athletes taking part. Mt. Hotham resort provided an excellent venue, especially given the snow situation this year. The resorts continued commitment to SX and SBX along with early season snow farming helped to provide a high-level track which challenged all ability levels. National Team athletes Doug Crawford, Alfred Wenk and Jesse Quinn helped over the Futures days to share their experiences and help inspire the next generation of SX athletes. See results HERE

ANC SX - Day 1

ANC SX - Day 2

We had a great week of competition in Mt Buller for the Snow Australia Children’s Carnival. A massive thanks to the effort of Mt Buller lift company, and their race and events department, for providing a great venue on the summit which saw the running of 4 SL races and 2 Panel SL races. Leading off the week on the Monday we ran the Club Skills Challenge which saw over 120 athletes, across U14 and U16, compete across 3 unique skills challenges being assessed by head coaches from all the race clubs. Thredbo Ski Racing Club took the trophy for a second year in a row although the competition was close on their heels. See results HERE

Congratulations to the overall winners: U14 Female Eliza Sweeney Ramasundara (TSRC) , U14 Male Xavier Lees (TSRC) , U16 Female Lara Kelly (MBRC), and U16 Male Archie Gould (FCRC). (seen below)

With all of the FIS races being cancelled in Australia we have had many athletes over in NZL competing in FIS and ANC races. National Team and Olympic Winter Institute athlete Louis Muhlen-Schulte has had a great start to the New Zealand race series winning both National Championship SL and GS races while also taking 2^nd in an ANC GS race.

This has seen Louis score multiple personal best results, winning the ANC GS bib, and should see his World Rank in GS sit just inside the Top 50 in the world. There are still more races coming over the next week in NZL with over 30 Australian athletes taking part.

Fast skiing to all those athletes competing!!

Shawn

As the 2023 season winds down (rapidly) Para HP Alpine and SB are finishing up in Jindabyne. Both teams have had productive training at home and are gearing up to head north for the International season to compete on the World Cup stage.

It has been amazing to have the facilities in the new NSTC – both teams have taken full advantage of the fantastic gym, as well as the Acro facilities with tramp and tumbling sessions, and the Snowboard team getting to the Air Bag as well.  The Snow Australia Para teams trained at Perisher, Thredbo and Hotham have taken advantage of a great season of training, a huge thanks to our partner resorts who have done an amazing job in a lean season to provide excellent training conditions.  The Para Snowboard also had the  opportunity to compete with their Olympic counterparts in the FIS ANC SBX events in Hotham, which added a competitive element to the domestic training block. .  With Para sports now under the umbrella or FIS, we will see more competitions with Apra divisions in the future as formats allow, which will offer more competition opportunities for Para athletes both domestically and in the Southern Hemisphere.

Next up for the teams- The Para Alpine team will head to Chile for a Speed (SG and DH) training camp the beginning of October, before heading to Austria for training and competitions in Europe in November.

The Para Snowboard team will head to training camps in Austria in early November prior to their first World Cup competitions at the end of November.

We saw a huge season of development activity throughout the resorts in Australia; Para Futures, Development Camps and Multiclass races throughout the season were some of the highlights. Great to see so many athletes in the pathway, and we continue to work with DWA to offer more opportunities for athletes with a disability to participate in snowsports; building more training and competition opportunities.

At an International level there will be the introduction of new classes to FIS Para alpine skiing.

Sort of Stature class will be trialled in FIS events in the Northern hemisphere with an aim to include this new class to FIS Para programs in the future.  And the current Visually Impaired (VI) classes have been reviewed and will change from 3 classes to 4 in season 2024. These changes open opportunities for both a new group of athletes with a disability and also a larger range of athletes with a Vision Impairment to compete and is a positive step forward for the sport. If you or someone you know is interested in learning more please get in touch.

All the best,

Ali Bombardier

Results from the 2023 Children's Carnival held at Mt Buller.

Twenty-five year old Louis Muhlen-Schulte has already competed at the Junior World Championships, Winter Youth Olympic Games, World Championships and Olympic Games, as well as lining up at Alpine World Cups since 2019.

All generations of Australian Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross athletes have converged at Mt Hotham Alpine Resort this week for a full week of development, training and racing opportunities.

The week kicked off with the Ski Cross and Snowboard Cross FUTURES, with 72 athletes in attendance, focusing on high performance training and preparation techniques for heat racing.

The Snow Australia Para FUTURES event recently concluded after three exciting days of adaptive snow sports at Perisher Resort

The event brought together seven talented new para-athletes, the Snow Australia High Performance Para Alpine National Team, guides from Disabled Wintersports Australia (DWA), Paralympics Australia and a fantastic team of classifiers.

Snow Australia recently hosted six invited athletes for a Para Alpine and Snowboard Development Camp in Perisher, from 7 - 11 August.

Jimmy Jan, Jonti Diamond, Joseph Fry, Aaron McCarthy, Alex Cherny and Laura Flynn came together with Snow Australia Para Coaches for a great week on snow.

It has recently been identified that there is a possible gap in travel and medical cover that may see our members being responsible for Ambulance and Emergency Transport costs occurring during Competition or Training in New Zealand.