For many journeys, the beginning is only understood in hindsight.
The first time Ben Tudhope stood on snow, there was no thought of medals or milestones, and no sense of history waiting to be written. There was only the feeling – the crunch under his boots, the cold wind on his cheeks, the careful search for balance – and a strange, wonderful sensation he had never felt before.
Freedom.
“Snowboarding let me be free for the first time,” he says. “It let me feel like myself.”
It is moments like these – small and unremarkable at the time – that sit at the heart of every Paralympic journey, and it is these moments that are only ever made possible through opportunity, and through support.
Born with cerebral palsy, affecting movement on the left side of his body, Ben had already learned that life often moves in unexpected directions. “Yes, my childhood was harder,” he reflects, “but I learned from a really young age you just have to own your differences.”
What he could not have known then – as an eight-year-old standing uncertainly on a board for the very first time – was that this unassuming moment was the beginning of something remarkable. Not because of what it would become, but because of what it made possible.
For many Australians with a disability today, those first moments have not yet happened.
Which is why Paralympics Australia has today launched its annual Tax Appeal, encouraging Australians to make a tax-deductible contribution that helps more aspiring athletes like Ben realise their own talent and potential in Para sport.
By Ashley Gillepsie, Paralympics Australia.
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