Para athletes take it to the next level at Alpine and Snowboard Development Camp
Published Mon 21 Aug 2023
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.
The camp was designed to introduce the athletes to the Para Alpine and Snowboard pathway and provide an opportunity to come together and experience the many elements of training as they work towards their goals of progressing into the high-performance arena.
Based out of Blue Cow and Front Valley, the athletes trained in Giant Slalom courses and free skied, working on their technique and new drills, embracing opportunities to learn.
The jam-packed week saw the next generation athletes training on snow, participating in video analysis sessions, a sports psychology session, a ski and board tuning clinic, and body awareness/coordination session at the new NSTC building in Jindabyne.
Laura Flynne said the week was a “10 out of 10 experience”.
“I honestly thought it was the best week of my life ski training because I felt very happy getting the best kind of experience, support, kindness and care within my performance,” she said.
The group also had the opportunity to head up the slopes before the public, see the sunrise and get some fast laps of the course in. This training was alongside high performance athletes and Australian Paralympians, which really gave the group a taste of the high performance environment.
“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 and snowboarding.” said Para Pathway Development Coach & Talent ID Coordinator, Tom Hodges.
Athletes will now turn their attention to having more time on snow during the Australian domestic season, or starting to plan for the 2023/2024 international northern hemisphere season.
