NSW Institute of Sport scholarship holder, Ben Tudhope is regarded as one of the fiercest snowboard cross para-athletes in the world cup circuit.
Ben became Australia’s youngest ever Winter Paralympian when he was selected for the Sochi 2014 Games at the age of just 14. He was the youngest competitor of any delegation at the 2014 Winter Games and had the privilege of bearing the Australian flag for the opening ceremony.
Following his Paralympic Games debut in Sochi, Ben medalled at the X Games Aspen (bronze), an exclusive action sports event, winning the first medal of his career, an achievement that ranks amongst the highlights of his career.
Ben competed at his second Olympics at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games, becoming the first Australian to be the youngest on the team at two consecutive Paralympic Games. At the 2018 Games, Ben narrowly missed a Paralympic medal, clocking 51.68 in the men’s banked slalom SB-LL2 and just 2.17 seconds shy of the bronze medal run.
Since then, Ben has won multiple golds, silver, and bronze world cup medals, placed silver at the 2019 World Championships, and has highlighted his career with two first-place world rankings at the end of the 2018/19 and the 2019/20 seasons. His accomplishments have earned him two overall crystal globe titles for boardercross and banked slalom, as well as the 2019/20 overall crystal globe.
The 2019/20 season saw Ben named the Australian Paralympic Athlete of the Year in recognition of his career’s first overall crystal globe victory at the World Para Snowboard World Cup in the SB-LL2 class.
Whilst the 2020/21 season saw many disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the dual Paralympian has returned to competition in the 2021/22 season and opened his world cup circuit with two podium finishes in Pyha, Finland – a gold on day one, followed by silver on day two of competition.
By February 2022, the NSW Institute of Sport athlete had claimed four gold medal wins with back-to-back medals at the Big White snowboard cross world cup in Canada, adding to two gold medals at the Klövsjö world cups in Sweden, and a silver and bronze at the Para Snow Sports World Championships in Norway. His incredible season earned the Sydney-sider the SB-LL2 snowboard cross Crystal Globe for the second time as the 2021-22 season champion, along with the overall Crystal Globe as the most successful para snowboard athlete across all disciplines.
Named for his third Paralympic Games in the Australian Paralympic Team for Beijing 2022, Ben was also announced as co-captain alongside two-time bronze medallist, Melissa Perrine.
Ben entered the Beijing Games as the world number one ranked snowboarder in his classification (SB-LL2) after winning the overall 2021-22 season championship.
At the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games, Ben claimed a stirring bronze medal when he edged out China’s Sun Qi in the snowboard cross big final at Genting Snowpark at Zhangjiakou on day three. In taking the podium at the Beijing Games, Ben became just the second Australian to win a medal in the Paralympic snowboard cross events.
Nearly a decade after he carried the Australian flag at the Sochi Games as a 14-year-old boy, the newly crowned Paralympic medallist was selected as the nation’s flag bearer for the Beijing 2022 Closing Ceremony.