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Skier, cyclist, adventurer, world and Australian record holder,
Paralympian, Olympian....
Michael Milton is one of Australia's best-known athletes. His
four-gold-medal haul at the 2002 Winter Paralympic Games endeared him to a
sport-loving nation and earned him the title of
Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a
Disability.
In April 2003 Michael tried something new: speed skiing, the drag racing of alpine sport. On the steepest slope in the world he clocked over 193km/hr, smashing a 16-year-old world record and becoming the fastest skier with a disability.
Every year after that he bettered his own world record until, in April 2006, he clocked a staggering 213.65km/hr to also become the fastest Australian skier ever.
A month earlier at the 2006 Winter Paralympic Games in (his fifth Paralympic Games) Michael's ski racing career came to an end. Under a new, tougher classification system, he won a silver medal in the Downhill, achieving his goal to "...win a medal, any colour." His ski racing medal count stands at eleven Paralympic medals (six gold) and eleven World Championships medals (six gold).
Milton is now pursuing a new sport: cycling. After six months of intense training, he not only won a gold medal in the 3000m Pursuit at the Australian Track Cycling Championships in February 2007 but also broke the Australian record.
His dream to make the Australian team and compete at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games were sidelined when he was diagnosed with Oesophagael Cancer in July 2007. He has since made an amazing comeback from this serious illness, recording times at the 2008 Australian Track Cycling Championships comparable to his results in the same events 12 months ago.
Michael John Milton
Born: 21 March 1973, Canberra
Lives: Canberra, Australia