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Australia’s leading Para-biathletes are turning heads as they continue their quest for Paralympic Winter Games qualification for the first time in 20 years.
Sit-skiers Dave Miln, Matt Brumby, vision-impaired athlete Taryn Dickens and her sighted guide Lynn Cullen are leading the charge to Milano Cortina 2026, hoping to become the first to wear the green and gold at Paralympic level since James Millar competed at the Torino Games in 2006.
While their collective ambition is to establish Australia as a force on the global stage, they are also making significant progress in driving their Para-sport forward domestically with the support of Biathlon Australia.
That progress was on full display at the 2025 Australian Biathlon Championship at Mt Hotham which concluded on Sunday.
After just two Para-athletes competed in last year’s championship, this year saw an exciting boost in numbers as Australia’s Paralympic hopefuls joined able-bodied athletes in open, masters and junior divisions over two days of elite competition.
In Saturday’s 1.5km sprint event, Miln produced strong speed along the challenging course and a masterclass on the range, hitting a perfect 10 from 10 targets to secure the gold medal ahead of Brumby, who missed just once. Newcomer Alex Hale showed immense promise in his first major competition to claim bronze.
Miln returned on Sunday in the longer-form mass start event to win gold again although his accuracy on the range dropped to 70 per cent. Brumby had an even tougher day, shooting at 55 per cent in another silver medal winning performance.
“As long as we keep growing the sport like this, it’s going to be amazing in the future.” Brumby said.
“We’re a community. We all do the same thing, we love skiing and shooting. That’s what biathlon is about. We had all the athletes who had finished before us waiting at the finish line to say congratulations and, you know, it’s always a warm, fuzzy feeling. Everyone loves it.
“The more close-knit a team is, the better we’ll all compete. So it’s been a good couple of days.”
In the women’s sprint race, Dickens overcame an early crash and fought hard with Cullen’s deft guidance to power home in a performance she acknowledged was not her best, but showed she is moving the right direction after a recent stint of heavy training in New Zealand.
After hitting just 60 per cent of her targets on Saturday, Dickens recovered to impressively reverse the trend of lower scores on Sunday’s longer course, shooting at 85 per cent, despite some lingering soreness from her fall 24 hours earlier.
“Falling over is always fun as a person with a vision impairment because you really don’t see it coming. Pun intended,” Dickens said wryly.
“But Lynn’s a fantastic guide, and we’ve really got in sync on snow. Even though it probably wasn’t my best race, every outing is a step in the right direction.
“A guide and an [vision-impaired] athlete is a really special relationship. Pretty close to being married, I think. When we’re travelling for our sport, we live together. We eat together. We ski together. We train together. And it’s really good in competitions like this to be able to secure that foundation even more.
“It feels really comfortable to ski behind her, and I’m finding it a lot easier the more we work together. I’m excited for what’s to come and I’m aiming to just keep putting my best foot forward every race, every day, every task.”
Competing at his first Australian Championship, Miln acknowledged the work of Biathlon Australia for their ongoing work to integrate Para-sport competition.
“It’s such a great community and the organisers have really pulled together to get us out here, get new people out on the course as well. It’s been a massive effort. Really good,” he said.
“I think [Para-biathlon] just opens up people’s eyes to what’s what we can do and what is achievable for us. It’s a big learning experience for everyone, I think.”
With the support of Biathlon Australia, plans are forming to make future Australian Championships even bigger from a Para-sport perspective.
“We’ve certainly learned a lot over the past two years,” said Sandra Paul, General Manager of Biathlon Australia
“We know more about what courses we can set because last year, having Para-athletes was new for us but now, they’re competing at an international standard. That’s been really good.
“Our saying is ‘Biathlon for all’. And we can’t be biathlon for all unless we are all providing these opportunities.
“I’ve been in awe of what our Para-athletes are doing and we have been proud to see them out there competing in the sport.
“Hopefully, we have more athletes [next year]. And everyone loves it, so all the work we’re doing, it’s worth it.”
By Tim Mannion, Paralympics Australia.
Published 12 August, 2025.
