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No coach. One pair of skis for the giant slalom and a borrowed pair for the 10 kilometre event. Record cold temperatures but a result he still jokingly gloats about.
They’re some of Australian Paralympic pioneer Kyrra Grunnsund’s recollections of his participation at the Winter Games at Geilo in Norway in 1980.
It’s a tale Grunnsund jotted into an email in response to 2022 Team Chef de Mission Kate McLoughlin’s call for the nation’s past Winter Paralympians to send messages of support or advice to our Team before Beijing.
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Grunnsund’s message was detailed and fascinating and provided insight into how the first Australian to compete at the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games helped set the culture of Australian Teams for decades.
“I’d been born without my right leg below the knee but, growing up in Perisher Valley and having a father who’d been an Australian skiing champion, it was just natural for me to ski,” Grunnsund wrote.
“At school I was mostly left out of sporting events. It was just taken for granted that, as I had a disability, I couldn’t do sport, but skiing I excelled at and loved and it was natural for me to begin to compete.
“With some good results under my belt I was asked if I was interested in competing in the 2nd Disabled Winter Olympics – as it was known then – in Geilo, Norway.”
At those Games, Australia was to have its first official team. Ron Finneran had competed at the first Games, at Ornskoldsvik, Sweden, in 1976 but, without an official class, his results were not recorded. At Geilo, Australia was represented by Grunnsund and visually impaired skier Peter Rickards, who was selected for the cross country events.
“So the 1980 alpine team consisted of just myself,” Grunnsund wrote.”No coach and just one pair of skis. I borrowed some cross country skis for the 10km event.
“I remember the week in Geilo had some record cold temperatures, below the cut off for holding competitions. But we went ahead and competed in close to minus 30. I hadn’t competed since the previous Australian winter and had no idea how good my competitors were, so it was a strange situation on the first race day, the Giant Slalom.
“I soon found out they were bloody good! Two below-knee amputee Austrians were outstanding, in a class of their own. Another competitor had competed in the World Cup before losing his arm.”
Grunnsund came ninth in the Giant Slalom and seventh in the Slalom, in which he was the youngest competitor.
“I also finished 9th in the cross country event,” he added. “I managed to beat all the Norwegians on their home ground, something I still gloat about to my Norwegian friends.”
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Geilo was just the start of Grunnsund’s remarkable Paralympic experience, which included Winter Games at Innsbruck, Austria in 1984 and 1988 when they became known as the Paralympic Winter Games, and at Albertville, France in 1992, the first time the Games were held at the same location as the Winter Olympics.
“While I had some OK results at the World Championships, my Paralympic results were mostly disappointing after my early promise, but I did manage five more top 10 results,” he said.
“It was great though to be part of the development of wintersport for the disabled in Australia. The team and the sport developed with an increasing number of team members and events and ever increasing standards of competition. My next trip [Innsbruck 1984], I headed off with five pairs of skis and we even started to have coaches with the team!”
Grunnsund switched to running and, in 1992, the same year as his last Winter Games appearance, he competed at the Barcelona Paralympics, where he set new world records in the 5000 and 10,000 metres.
“As a below-knee amputee I was at a bit of disadvantage against a field of one-armed runners, but I finished my Games career on a good note,” he said.
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Grunnsund’s advice to the Team for Beijing was a reflection of that offered recently by his former teammate Michael Milton – “ski like you’re in a local club race”.
“Training on country roads I dreamt of running to a huge crowd of cheering spectators. When in Barcelona and I really was running in front of a huge crowd, I imagined myself back on those quiet country roads running quickly and enjoying myself. Finally, in my last events I got it right instead of thinking too much and performing poorly.
“So my advice to the team is ski to enjoy yourselves. Remember your best training runs and enjoy a good fast training run that just happens to be a Paralympic event.”
To finish his lovely message to the 2022 Winter Team, Grunnsund wrote: “All those years ago in Geilo, Norway I never would have guessed I’d end up living in Norway. But, having met a Norwegian woman – my now wife, Liv – in Australia, I ended up moving to the country my parents left for Australia 70 years ago.
“With the recent World Championships held in Hafjell, it was good to get up there and watch the current Aussie Team in action. There were some impressive performances. All the best for even better skiing and boarding in Beijing. Good luck!”
By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 24 February 2022
