MICHAEL MILTON OAM

Besides winning six Winter Paralympic Games gold medals; competing in the 2008 Summer Paralympic Games as a track cyclist; scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and completing the Gold Coast Marathon on one leg, Michael Milton OAM also holds one of Australian sports most breathtaking records. 

A few weeks after competing in the 2006 Winter Paralympic Games, Milton not only became the world’s fastest skier with a disability by rocketing down a slope in France at 213.65 km/h, but by doing so, he seized the Australian open record from Nick Krishner.  

Physics put Milton’s achievement into perspective. While he was at risk of being sent flying by even the slightest bump due to Milton skiing on one leg, being on one ski also meant his weight was distributed over a width of only six centimetres. Those with two skis have 50 centimetres to work with.  

Milton forged a reputation as an Alpine legend around the world by competing in five winter Paralympic Games between 1988 – in which he competed as a 14-year-old, just five years after having the lower part of his leg amputated due to bone cancer – and 2006. His haul of six gold, three silver and two bronze medals earned him the title as Australia’s greatest Paralympic winter athlete. He also reigned supreme in world championship competition with six glittering gold among his 11 medals.  

While he was a member of the 2014 Australian team at the Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Milton created history by competing in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing as a cyclist after winning gold and breaking the national record in the individual pursuit event at the 2007 Australian Track Championships. He competed in China despite undergoing extensive surgery, chemo and radio therapy for a new cancer. 

Milton said one of the real challenges about living with a disability is knowing the low expectations people have of you and breaking through the barriers our culture enforces.  

Through his achievements, which have rightfully been recognised with the title NSWIS Most Outstanding, an OAM, the Australian Sports Medal, inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, 2002 Australian Paralympian of the Year; 2002 Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability and Paralympics Australia Hall of Fame, Milton has been a force in shifting perceptions and attitudes.