Sizzling Slalom Sets Championships Alight

If his slalom form is anything to go by, Josh Hanlon seems well on his way to earning selection to the Australian Paralympic Team for the Milano Cortina Games next March.

The Beijing 2022 Paralympic representative sit-skier produced four blistering runs across two races at the FIS Para-Alpine National Championships at Perisher on Wednesday.

“Slalom’s been feeling great lately. It’s been a good season and I had a few good runs today,” Hanlon said.

“Each day and each week, I feel like I’m edging closer to being at the top, which is great. I just love getting out there every day and making the most of every run, just getting as many runs as I can and putting in the work. It’s great fun.”

Hanlon wasn’t the only Milano Cortina contender to shine in racing on Wednesday. Sixteen-year-old Liana France completed four runs at her first Para-alpine skiing event and another up-and-comer, Fletcher Crowley, showed he is a potential star of the future. At the other end of the experience scale, Paralympic great Michael Milton said he had great fun executing the slalom across four successful runs.

Hanlon said he and Milton had chatted during the day about their padding and different suits, which cop a serious workout from repeatedly hitting the poles as the skiers charge down the hill.

“He was telling me how he used to wear a woollen suit instead of the speed suits. It was pretty cool to hear that history,” Hanlon said.

“I do like having other teammates to bounce off and to watch. It really does help. But at the same time, you’ve really just got to focus on yourself and try to be better than you were last run and just sort of attack it that way.”

It’s paying off for the former Australian rules footballer, who grew up in country NSW and has a passionate band of supporters from the region backing his sporting career.

“We’ve still got a fair bit of time on snow, which is great,” he said of the time leading up to Milano Cortina, which starts on March 6.

“We’ve got a couple weeks in Chile then get to Europe for a couple of weeks’ training in November. Then our World Cup season starts, which is a pretty full-on schedule. But it gives us time to make those little improvements.

“I’ve had a really big following and been super lucky. Since I got sick, to have that Facebook page made (‘Josh Chooka Hanlon’, which has over 5000 followers), it had good traction early on and it’s kept going over the years, which has been really nice. It’s exciting to that my family and everyone’s booking in to go to Italy for the Games. I can’t wait.”

France, who acquired her impairment in a motor accident when she was 13, was classified before the event, made possible as part of a funding grant for the event from the NSW Government. She said the day’s racing was “high intensity”.

“Now that I have confirmation of what’s possible, it definitely makes me very excited about next steps going forward,” she said.

By David Sygall, Paralympics Australia.

Published 10 September, 2025.