Snow sports pick up a host of awards at NSWIS night of nights

Snow sports have walked away with a swag of awards at the NSW Institute of Sport Awards held at the Sydney Cricket Ground that recognised athletes, coaches and support staff.

PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic medallists Matthew Graham and Jarryd Hughes were named joint winners of the M.J. Bale Male Athlete of the Year Award. The duo shared the honour after taking out two of Australia’s three total Winter Olympic medals in February with silvers in the men’s mogul skiing and snowboard cross events respectively.

“This is definitely up there in terms of honours I’ve received as an athlete”, Graham said upon accepting the award.

“I know some of the best Australian sports people have been in this spot so it’s an extreme honour to have my name up with theirs.”

The impressive results at both the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, including a total of four podium performances, helped the NSWIS Winter Sports Program win the Sydney Olympic Park Authority Program of the Year, an award proudly accepted by Peter Topalovic.

Dual Winter Paralympic bronze medallist Melissa Perrine was the recipient of the Clubs NSW Personal Excellence Award having coupled her PyeongChang success with the completion of a Masters of Physiotherapy.

In the new 7News Spirit of Sport Award, as voted by the public, Christian Geiger won by the slimmest of margins for his act of generosity in flying Perrine’s family to PyeongChang, allowing them to watch her compete at the Winter Paralympics.