Next-Gen Para Alpine Skiers Shine at Perisher Development Camp

Five up-and-coming Para Alpine athletes converged on Perisher Ski Resort this week for a Snow Australia Para Alpine Development Camp.

The camp was attended by athletes Zach Bortoli, Georgia Gunew, Keiraley O’Conner (sighted guide), Mia Cape and Casey Taylor.  

The camp was designed to introduce the athletes to the Para Alpine pathway and provided an opportunity to come together and experience the many elements of Para Alpine training as they work towards their goals of progressing into the high-performance arena.  

The jam-packed week of activities saw the next generation athletes working with coaches on snow, participating in video review sessions, strength and conditioning sessions, AW+E coaching, nutrition workshops and ski tuning sessions.

Based out of Blue Cow, the athletes trained on Slalom and Giant Slalom courses, and embraced opportunities to learn new drills and work on their ski technique.

Snow Australia’s Para Pathway Development Coach & Talent ID Coordinator, Tom Hodges, said it was exciting to see the potential in Australia’s future Para Alpine skiers and to grow the talent identification pool.

 “These athletes and others in the talend ID pool have shown a lot of potential and enthusiasm to build on their skills,” Hodges said.

“We can’t wait to support them and see what the future holds for these athletes as we speed into another Paralympic cycle.

“The athletes said the highlight of the development camp was challenging themselves in new training environments and seeing incremental improvements in their own, and the teams’ skiing.

“Some of their biggest takeaways were simply being back on snow and in a team environment, as well as learning how to tune and take care of their skis,” he said.

For some of these athletes the next big step is completing in World Para Alpine Skiing competitions in New Zealand this Spring.  Others will continue training in the northern hemisphere season. 

Snow Australia is running Para Futures events in all disciplines for para-athletes this season, starting with a physical impairments event next week.