Join AUS Squad
Back To News
Athletes are at the centre of Paralympic performance. But, behind the scenes, across thousands of kilometres and countless early mornings and late nights, coaches provide the stability and guidance that can make the difference between success and failure.
The Australian Paralympic Winter Team’s three head coaches – Ali Bombardier from Para alpine skiing, Nickie Rodger from Para snowboard and Kaspar Wirz from Para Nordic skiing – have been on very different journeys to Milano Cortina 2026. Yet they share the same goal: to give their Australian Paralympic athletes the best chance to achieve their best results.
KASPAR WIRZ has been head coach of the two Nordic disciplines – biathlon and cross-country – for the past two years, with snow sports deeply ingrained in his DNA. The 2026 Milano Cortina Games are his eighth Winter Paralympics, to add to several Winter Olympic campaigns.
Wirz’s knowledge stretches across continents, having mentored Canada at five Games (1998, 2002, 2006 2010, 2014) before joining South Korea for the 2018 PyeongChang Games, then China for the Beijing 2022 Paralympics.
Wirz had coached the Canadian Nordic team at the 1992 Albertville Olympics and several World Championships. But a chance meeting on a cross-country trail three decades ago flicked a switch in his coaching career toward the Paralympic world.
“It was right after the’92 Games,” Wirz said.
“I grew up in Switzerland, so I went to many European, World Championships, Olympic Games and other major events. I’d come home and bring that knowledge to the younger kids. I knew how to help them and make them better.
“So, I’m home in Canada from Albertville and I went skiing in Saskatoon and I saw a LW10 (wheelchair or sit-skier classification) skiing and I thought ‘What was that?’
“We got talking and they were preparing for the Paralympic Games in Tignes in France (1992) and I’d never heard of these Games, so I suggested we have a long talk when they got back to see what this is all about. And that’s how I got involved.”
Wirz became a sighted guide for a vision impaired athlete at the 1994 Lillehammer Paralympics.
“I was coaching a little on the side … learning how to, and what can we do, for skiers with a disability.”
In 1996 Para Nordic sport in Canada was mainstreamed with able-bodied athletes and Wirz was appointed Para head coach for the 1998 Nagano Games. He has watched Para winter sports grow in size and stature. But there had to be changes in attitude first.
“There was a meeting with coaches of different nations after Nagano, where we agreed we could not keep doing what we were doing,” he said. “We needed to get professional at all levels.
“Now in many countries there are many fulltime athletes and coaches, there are better programs and development pathways. That all started from 1998 and you can see the results for yourselves.”
At Milano Cortina, Australia has four Nordic skiers at a Paralympics for the first time. The pioneer was James Millar at the 2006 Torino Games and he was joined by Dominic Monypenny in 2010 in Vancouver.
But for the past three Winter Games there have been none in the Australian team.
Wirz said that to sustain the interest in biathlon and cross-country, Australia had to keep putting resources into development.
“After Milano Cortina there needs to be decisions on who is doing what, and when, and how, so that the sport continues to grow,” he said. “We just cannot have these four elite athletes up here and not have development down below.
“There will be a lot of focus on the 2032 Brisbane (Summer) Games but that will have a lot of side effects for the Winter Games too. So it is a good time to be in this position.”
NICKIE RODGER started skiing at the age of three, at the end of a tether pulled by her dad. When she became older, she begged her parents for a snowboard. When they finally relented, it was almost like an epiphany.
“From that moment, all I wanted was to be on a snowboard as often as possible,” Rodger said. “There’s nothing else in my life besides my children that fills me with as much joy as snowboarding.”
Rodger’s joy of snowboarding was compounded by the people she met within the sport, one of whom was a 14-year-old Ben Tudhope, who she came to know while he was competing at Rodger’s home mountain, Big White in Canada.
“The other day, I was looking at my Instagram photos and one of the very first Instagram photos I ever put up was from that first Para Snowboard World Cup that we held up there, and I’ve got a photograph of Benny at 14 years old and I together,” she said.
The pair stayed in contact and, after the Beijing 2022 Games, when coach Par Sundqvist finished up with the Australian team – where Tudhope was the only snowboarder on the team – Tudhope asked Rodger if she’d be interested in becoming his coach.
“From there, the ball started rolling and all of a sudden, I was employed by Snow Australia as Ben’s coach,” Rodger said.
“Benny was the only athlete at the time and when I signed up. It was just for that first winter, but he had a phenomenal season, won the world championship at La Molina, it was amazing.
“Eventually they were looking for a program coach and, from there, the program has really grown, which has been awesome.”
Rodger said the indications were that the trend would continue.
“I look at the pathway for the next four years and there’s a strong possibility that we could be looking at a team of maybe eight by the next Paralympics, which is … it gives me goosebumps,” she said.
“Working with the Australian team, it’s just a massive honour to be a part of this and to watch these athletes achieve the goals that they set out for themselves.
“The Australian program is fresh and exciting. The amount of Instagram messages that I’m replying to off our team page is huge, people going, ‘Hey, I’ve heard about you through so and so, is there a chance we can come to the snow?’”
If people do join the program and come under Rodger’s tutelage, her love for snowboarding will almost certainly rub off.
“Anytime we can get people on the snow, much less the Paralympics or people with disabilities or different abilities, that fills my passion,” she said.
“It drives my soul. Once people start snowboarding, they never stop. It’s an addiction.”
ALI BOMBARDIER’s parents had a lodge at Guthega in the NSW Snowy Mountains and she started out as a cross-country skier before finding joy in downhill.
Bombardier later competed at FIS level and at the World University Games, which she said was her biggest event.
“I wouldn’t say I was competitive at any particularly high level,” Bombardier said. “It was a love of the sport that kept me going. When I was younger, it was about going fast. Nowadays, it’s more the sunrises and beautiful scenery.
“But I still l love watching athletes go fast. It’s just a really cool freedom when you’re actually skiing and skiing well.”
With an American father and dual citizenship, Bombardier spent considerable time ski instructing at Winter Park, a famous ski resort in Colorado. The resort ran an adaptive skiing program and Bombardier was asked if she would be interested in joining the program as a coach.
“I thought it would be a great way to get out of ski instructing,” she said. “So, I did it and I had a great time because it was a bunch of really fun kids that just wanted to get out there and ski and get better. Eventually, that turned into a full-time job.”
The program, through the National Sports Center for the Disabled, drew many international skiers.
“A lot of Australians and New Zealanders would go there because it’s a solid base where you could go and join and train,” she said. “So that’s how I met the Michael Miltons of the world originally.”
Bombardier said she “went back and forth” for a period working with disabled and non-disabled skiers and running events. She first worked with Paralympics Australia – or the Australian Paralympic Committee, as it was then known – in 2009 before stepping away for a while and returning four years ago when the program fell under the control of Snow Australia.
She described working with athletes with a disability as unique, frustrating and fascinating.
“It’s great because I get to work with alpine at a high level,” she said, “and every day is different. Every athlete is really different.
“It makes it equally fascinating and frustrating at the same time. But that’s kind of what keeps you going. The athletes really put in 110 percent to try different stuff and they really want to be the best they can be.”
Bombardier said her big challenge away from the athletes is to educate more people about Para skiing and strengthen the domestic program.
“It’s interesting looking at other countries; some have nailed it and some are behind us,” she said.
“I see my job as building knowledge in a lot of other people because we need more than just me in this sort of role.”
By: David Sygall and Margie McDonald, Paralympics Australia
Published: 11 March 2026
