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Congratulations Team Australia!
Twelve athletes with an intellectual disability will represent Australia in Alpine skiing and snowboarding at the Special Olympics World Winter Games. They will be supported by five volunteer officials and cheered on by a small group of families and supporters.
Team Australia 2017 is:
Alpine Skiing: Alexander Cherny (VIC), Luke Forster (QLD), Brenton Heslehurst (QLD), Amanda Kozik (VIC), Shaun McKee (QLD), Sara Molloy (VIC), Ben Pearce (VIC), Perrin Richardson (VIC), Kristian Sandercoe (ACT), Olivia Sayers (VIC).
Snowboarding: David Campion (ACT), Craig Muhlbock (NSW).
Head of Delegation: Sharyn Harris (NSW)
Aussie Winter Games History
This will be the second-time that Australia has competed in snowsports at a World Winter Games. At the last Special Olympics World Winter Games in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea in 2013 a team of five Australian athletes returned home with an extraordinary 13 medals: 3 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze.
The Games
From 14-25 March 2017, 3,000 athletes from 117 nations will compete across nine wintersports disciplines at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Austria. The disciplines are: Alpine skiing, figure skating, floor ball, floor hockey, Nordic skiing, snow shoeing, snowboarding, speed skating and stick shooting, with floor hockey and floor ball having the most participants.
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Getting Games-Ready
Before they set foot on the slopes each member of the Australian team will be fundraising to cover the $10,500 needed to get them to the Games, as well as cover the cost of insurance, uniforms, team support and training camps. Team Australia will come together in August 2016 for a full team training camp to prepare for Austria.
If you would like to donate to Team Australia and help them achieve their best against the world please visit:
Dress Rehearsal
In January 2016, Austria hosted an impressive “dress rehearsal” for the Special Olympics World Winter Games as 1,000 athletes from 21 nations competed for glory over four days. The event allowed the Games Organising Committee (GOC) to identify areas that worked well and explore areas that could benefit from improvement.
According to Mary Davis, CEO of Special Olympics, "The Pre-Games were a great success and a successful dress rehearsal for the upcoming Special Olympics World Winter Games. The slogan of the games next year – Heartbeat for the World – is ideally suited to Austria. Everywhere, I have felt the warmth of the Austrian people this week. I can’t imagine a better place for 3,000 participants from more than 100 nations to come together." With pre-Games activities over, the GOC will now put their full focus on the Special Olympics World Winter Games in just 400 days.
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