We can win medals

World Cup results encourage Winter Paralympics chief

AUSTRALIA’S Chef de Mission for next month’s Winter Paralympics, Nick Dean, hopes to bring his Midas touch to PyeongChang.

Dean, 67, last took the reins for the 2002 Salt Lake City Games where Michael Milton (leg amputee) and Bart Bunting (vision impaired) made the Utah mountain their own with six golds between them.

Since then Australia’s winter skiers and snowboarders — that discipline was added to the Paralympic program in 2014 — have won a total of two silvers and six bronze in Turin, Vancouver and Sochi.

Dean was also in charge in Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998, where Milton, Michael Norton (paraplegic) and James Paterson (cerebral palsy) took gold.

One of the key reasons for the recent drought is the change in athlete classification in alpine skiing, which reduced 14 disability classes to three: standing, sitting and visionimpaired.

Skiers are then given a time factor, according to the severity of their disability, to even out the field.

Dean says the other reason is the increased and improved competition. Salt Lake had 36 countries competing while PyeongChang is expecting 45.

“It is really, really tough now. But we’ve always performed well on the World Cup circuit and have again this year,” Dean said, referring to snowboarder Joany Badenhorst’s two golds as well as recent medals for Melissa Perrine and Barwon Heads skier Mitch Gourley.

Gourley became super combined world champion in Italy last year.

“And remember we can’t practise in our backyards at home like the Europeans, Americans and Canadians can do,” Dean said.

“The other thing is those (World Cup) races are spread out over a season so you have a decent chance of getting on the podium if you continue to work hard.

“For the Paralympic Games it comes down to that particular moment on that particular day in those particular condi- tions. It means anyone from the top 10 can get a medal and even those from further down the rankings can have the most amazing race and win.

“But we do have a nucleus of people who can win medals. I do rate our best chances in the women’s events — Melissa and Joany and Victoria (Pendergast) have statistics behind them with the best World Cup placings.”

They are among an Australian team of four women and nine men to compete in PyeongChang from March 9-18.