National Volunteer Week | Alice Chilcott

Alice Chilcott was one of Australia’s premier skiers at the turn of the century and turned in what remains one of the country’s top alpine results at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games in 2002 when she finished 12th in the Combined.

When she hung up the race boots, Alice spent some time away from the sport, content to move onto the next part of her life and start a family.

Remaining connected to Thredbo and the local community, she was always heavily involved in kids’ activities from pony club to the netball courts.

“I’ve always had a real sense that grassroots sport doesn’t happen without volunteers,” she said. “You can’t just leave it to someone else.”

The next obvious step was for Alice to give back to ‘her’ sport, but she didn’t go for the opportunities which she now finds herself enjoying.

“The trigger? I was approached,” she said. “They were looking for a TD [technical delegate], they were looking at the gender and also at an age bracket which could ensure some tenure in the role.”

For Alice, the approach to become a technical delegate came at the right time and hit a note she was readily familiar with. Before spreadsheets and apps would instantly calculate race penalties, a teenage Alice would madly calculate points in the car on the way home from events, not content with having to wait days or weeks for results to be processed.
 
“The TD role is about maintaining fairness and safety - they’re the two key components of it,” said Alice. “As an athlete I was always fascinated about the points system and ranking system, and that is one of the IDs function - to make sure results are verified.”

Despite once being one of the best skiers in the world, Alice wasn’t parachuted into the role. She still needed to study, learn, shadow TDs at events and complete verbal and written exams before being issued with a TD number, something she will now hold for life.

While enjoying her experience as a TD which has the potential to take her to the world’s biggest events such as World Championships and the Olympics - albeit on the other side of the rope - Alice is thankful Snow Australia has taken a proactive role to engage more females in a role which has historically been dominated by men. 

“I think Australia, not just sport, has realised that this is something that doesn’t happen organically,” she said. Females may not be comfortable in that space or they are their family’s main caregivers, however once they’re in the role, there is definitely value.”

Alice is adding further value as a member of the Alpine National Discipline Committee. Across all the Snow Australia NDCs, there is a concerted effort for more females to become involved and Alice was just the right person at the right time for the Alpine committee. 

“The timing was right,” she says. “They wanted fresh blood, fresh eyes. I assume someone said let’s approach 15 people and we’ll see who says yes!

“I’m connected to the sport through lots of different angles. I have a lot to give from the inner workings of a resort, back office decisions about where and why events are held.

“One of the main reasons [I got involved] is I’ve always liked the community that was created for me within the winter sports.

“I’m a Committee member with a  new type of representation; I’m not there with the vested interest of a child or anyone else - but I want to be connected to that community.”

Alice believes it won’t be long until there is a more even gender representation on Snow Australia committees and is grateful her discipline is leading the way.

“We’re lucky in the alpine space that we’ve got strong female candidates and we have for some time,” she said. “Within the other committees, we need to look at who are the females with our cohort and let’s go target them. Let’s find five names, five females.

“Thinking it will happen organically just because you hold a role for a female is not enough - you have to make it happen.”