Five more athletes receive Snow Australia Medals

In addition to celebrating the stars of the 2023/24 snowsport season, five athletes were presented with their Snow Australia Medals at last Thursday’s Snow Australia Awards in Melbourne. 

The Snow Australia Medal was launched in June 2020 by Snow Australia to recognise the achievements and careers of those past and retiring athletes who represented Australia at the highest level of snow sport competition.

It is presented to all athletes who have finished on the podium at World Cup or World Championship level, and/or represented Australia at the Olympic or Paralympic Winter Games.

Olympians to be presented with their medals on Thursday were Anton Grimus (ski cross), Katie Parker (alpine) and Steph Prem (snowboard cross).

Prem represented Australia at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Grimus was at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 while Parker competed at Beijing 2022.

Medals were also presented sighted guide Lara Falk and Amelia Hodgson who raced with visually impaired skier Pat Jensen through his career, including the 2018 and 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Looking back on her career, Prem said she is thankful for being able to forge a career doing something she genuinely loved.

“For me it was always my favourite hobby anyway, it was something I loved doing. I didn’t grow up wanting to be an Olympian… it was just something I loved and I became very good at… and something I still love today,” she said. 

“For a lot of us it’s a really difficult phase when you lose your community and everything you you knew in sport. When we retire we think we need to start again, and then we realise we’ve got all these skills and all of these things we learned from sport that can transfer into so many other industries and so many other opportunities in life.”

Reflecting on a career which saw him go to two Winter Olympic Games, Grimus said the community at Mt Buller played a major role in his ski racing journey.

“Without it there would be not doubt I’d be here tonight or have done what I’ve done in ski racing, travelled to where I’ve been,” he said. “The Mt Buller community’s great; it gave me the opportunities I was granted throughout my life and I couldn’t be more thankful.”