Snow Australia appoints Chip Richards as Coach Academy Lead Facilitator

Snow Australia is pleased to announce that Chip Richards is joining the national team, in the new Lead Facilitator - Coach Academy role.

Chip brings a wealth of snowsports experience to the team. A former top-ranked Freestyle skier, he has coached at international level for many years and has mentored numerous Olympic athletes, including four World Champions. In 1998 he was the Head Coach of the Australian Moguls team at the Nagano Winter Olympics. He then spent much of the past 20 years coaching and developing leaders and teams in a wide range of global industries. In his Lead Facilitator role, he will contribute to setting out the overall Coach Academy curriculum, delivering core Academy modules and developing content to bring the whole Academy journey to life.

“It is an honour and a great experience to circle back into Australian winter sport at this time, when the opportunity to develop and maximise the domestic coaching talent is rising to a peak,” Richards said.

“It’s exciting to come back into the heart of the sport I grew up with, to see how it’s evolved and grown, and to bring some extraordinary tools and approaches to help infuse this next wave of development.

“One thing I have always appreciated about Australian winter sport is the athlete-centric approach to developing the programs and system. What the Coach Academy is doing is extending that approach and development focus to the coaches. A very exciting mission to be part of!”

The 12-month Coach Academy program is broken into four main modules, each targeting a key area of development. Delivery of the first module, which focused on key leadership qualities and the sense of purpose required for a successful coaching path, was recently completed. The Academy is now moving towards module 2, which covers the technical and adaptive elements of breakthrough performance.

“We are looking forward to the Coach Academy growing into a long-term cornerstone of the Snow Australia experience for coaches across all winter disciplines, committed to being their best and to maximising their potential for impact and progression in their chosen path.

“We are already talking about the rolling admission into the 2021 program and what the “level 2” Academy experience will look like for all those who are going through the 12-month program now,” Richards said.

Snow Australia Performance Pathway & Program Manager Ben Wordsworth said he is excited to work with Chip in the ongoing delivery and execution of the Snow Australia Coach Academy.

“The Snow Australia Coach Academy is a commitment to developing our snowsports coaches here in Australia, and it’s a great opportunity to have someone of Chip’s calibre leading the program,” Wordsworth said.

“Chip has previously contributed to the development of the Coach Academy strategy and that puts him in the best position to continue driving its growth.”