Geoff Henke reflects on past Winter Olympics as latest recipients of Snow Australia Medal are announced
Published Fri 14 Aug 2020
Members of the 1976 Australia Olympic Winter Games Team. Image courtesy Bill Bachman
Snow Australia today announced the latest fifteen recipients of the Snow Australia Medal, all athletes who represented Australia at the 1976 and 1980 Olympic Winter Games and at the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Paralympic Winter Games.
The group includes Australia's first Paralympians and first paralympic recipients of the Snow Australia Medal: Para-alpine skiers Ron Finneran and Andrew Temple, Paralympic Cross-Country athletes Peter Rickards, Rodney Mill and his guide, Peter Smythe, plus Kyrra Grunnsund, who at the Geilo 1980 Paralympic Winter Games competed in both para-disciplines.
Also being nominated for the Snow Australia Medal are members of the Innsbruck 1976 Australian Olympic Alpine team Kim Clifford, David Griff, Joanne McDougall (née Henke), Rob McIntyre and Sally Rodd, and Lake Placid 1980 Alpine team members Jenny Altermatt, Jacqui Cowderoy and Antony Guss. Colleen Bolton, the first female Australian Cross-country skier ever to compete at the Winter Games in 1980, rounds up the group of recipients.
The 1976 Olympic Winter Games marked the debut of Geoff Henke, AO at the helm of the Australian Olympic team. Henke, who is widely credited with ending the neglect of winter sports in Australia and is the inaugural and current chair of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, held the role of Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Winter team for six Games, from 1976 to 1994.
As an athlete, Henke had been selected to participate in the 1956 Cortina Winter Olympics with the Australian ice hockey team. However the AOC, after an immense media lobby, failed to send the team because of the lack of support. Henke had another opportunity to become a Winter Olympian in 1960, when he was appointed player-assistant coach of the Australian ice hockey team, but had to turn down the selection due to business commitments. Previously, in 1952, his wife Gweneth Henke (née Molony) and fellow figure skater Nancy Burley had become the first Australian women to represent Australia at the Winter Games when they competed at the Oslo Olympics.
Henke pinpoints 1976 as a watershed moment for the Australian winter sports movement: "Innsbruck 1976 was the start of the modern representation of Australia at the Winter Games because of the organisation," he says. "We had uniforms, all the gear and the recognition that should go with being representatives of the Olympic Committee. We also had the backing of the Australian Ski Federation, which was very much a part of the whole thing.”
"We had a very good male and female Alpine team. The boys in particular were really close to being in the first group," remembers Henke. "We've never had that standard since, for an Alpine team as such. They had potential and Martin Kerscher did a great job with them. All preparations were excellent at the time. Volkswagen were our sponsors, we had two Volkswagen kombi buses and they very much looked after us. The whole set up of the Alpine team was very good."
Martin Kersher was the Austrian coach of the Alpine team, an influential ski instructor who also taught at Thredbo. Henke credits Kersher's close relationship with the Austrian team and its coach, the three-time Olympic Champion Toni Sailer, for the support received by the Australian team in Innsbruck.
"He [Sailer] and Martin were very much behind us. We had skis and the Austrian team had a lot of downhill suits and other equipment. We were well looked after and very well received. Of course you could see how inexperienced we were, but fortunately we had the right backing through Kersher and the Austrian team," continues Henke.
Four years later, at Lake Placid (USA), Henke was again at the helm of the Australian winter team. A small village in upstate New York, Lake Placid had bid numerous times to host the Games, but organisers had never before been able to assuage the concerns of IOC members, worried about the inconsistent snow coverage on the East Coast.
"That was really the first time that snow-making was introduced to the Games. That's how they got the Games, actually," says Henke. Of those Games, he also remembers the controversial athletes accommodation, a newly built facility which would eventually be repurposed as a Federal Correctional Institution just a few months after the 1980 Winter Olympics. "We were in jail!" jokes Henke. "It was brand new, and we went in before the convicts. We opened up the jails, that was the Olympic Village!"
If the late Seventies and early Eighties were pivotal years to establish winter sports on the Australian sporting landscape, much of it is due to Henke's efforts and his personal relationships. Julius Patching, Secretary General of the Australian Olympic Committee from 1973 to 1985, was particularly instrumental to ensure Australian winter sports would receive full support from sport administrators. "They [the Australian Olympic Committee] really got behind it from 1976. Julius and I were very close, always have been. He was like a father to me in many ways," continues Henke. After the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow Henke organised an AOC Executive Board meeting in Falls Creek, which opened up people's eyes to the potential of snow sports in Australia.
"They came from Queensland and all over the place, of course, and some of them had never seen the snow before," recalls Henke. "In fairness, for the Australian Olympic Committee there had to be some sort of education, I suppose, so that they could see the potential of having the Winter Games as a part of it, in terms of sponsorships and everything else. It gave them much more strength."
Geoff Henke continued his work as Chef de Mission of the Australian Winter team until 1994, when he led the Australian Olympic team for the sixth and last time. In Lillehammer, Norway, the 5,000m short-track relay won a Bronze, Australia's first medal at the Olympic Winter Games. Henke could not have been more proud to leave his team management role with such an historic achievement. "Very much so. It was great to see the [short track] team get up there. They had won a World Championships before that, you know. They were very good, they really were."
Henke remembers getting on the phone to celebrate with the current Australian Olympic Committee President John Coates, who had been elected just a few years before. "He was ecstatic with the result. He's been one of our great stalwarts as far as the Winter Games. We've had a great relationship and that helped us a lot."
The Australian team has produced five Olympic Champions since Lillehammer and has never again come back empty-handed from a Winter Games. "I think we've entered a new era and we'll never look back," confirms Henke. "The big question mark now is to get the Alpine team back up. But a Malcom Milne, a Steven Lee or a Zali Steggall will come out of the woodwork sooner or later."
"The support we've received from all the resorts has been outstanding. We now have the water jumps in Brisbane, we own our own Lodge, plus we have the aerials and the gymnasium at Mt Buller, and we are doing very well with regards to the camp in Jindabyne and in general with the essential NSWIS, VIS and AIS support. My relationship with [Olympic Winter Institute of Australia’s CEO] Geoff Lipshut since the instigation of the OWIA has been outstanding and very productive, and with Snow Australia and also their Interschools program I can say that all the foundations are there now for a tremendous future. We'll never look back," says Henke.