Snow Australia launches new legacy award: Snow Australia Medal

Snow Australia is set to launch a new formal recognition of athletic achievement in winter sports, the Snow Australia Medal.

The legacy award will be presented to honour past and retiring athletes who achieved success for Australia at the highest levels of the sport across the Snow Australia Alpine, Cross Country, Freestyle, Snowboard, Park and Pipe and Para-disciplines.

Snow sports athletes who won a medal at World Championships or World Cup level, or who represented Australia at the Winter Olympic or Paralympic Games during their careers, will be eligible to receive the Snow Australia Medal. The medals will be presented by Snow Australia, retrospectively, to past athletes and, in the future, to retiring athletes at the end of their final season.

The initial list of medal recipients, which comprises almost 200 top Australian snow sports athletes dating back to the 1952 Winter Olympics, boasts our sport’s biggest names including Malcom Milne, Kirstie Marshall, Zali Steggall and Olympic Gold Medal winners Alisa Camplin, Torah Bright and Lydia Lassila to name a few. The full list of recipients will be progressively announced by Snow Australia in the coming months.

Snow Australia CEO Michael Kennedy said: “Our sport has a proud history at the Olympic, Paralympic, World Championship and World Cup level. The Snow Australia medal will allow us to recognise and celebrate the achievements and careers of those athletes that pioneered Australia’s strong reputation on the international stage.

"This is an opportunity to look back into our past and connect Australia’s Ski and Snowboarding elite into the present by recognising a unique alumni that forged the success of our sport."

The design of the Snow Australia Medal will be finalised later in the year, with Snow Australia seeking to capture the tradition and iconic imagery of the sport in the design.