As a teenager, Josh Hanlon was a member of the GWS Giants Academy and seemed destined for a career in AFL. However, after becoming an amputee of both legs below the knee and his right arm at the wrist due to a severe bacterial infection in 2018, a new world opened up a long way from his country life in the NSW Central West.
By 2019 Josh was on his first overseas trip with the Australian Para-alpine development squad and, by 2022, he was a member of the Australian Paralympic Team that competed at the Beijing Winter Paralympics. The lanky and laconic sit-skier showed exceptional promise, coming sixth in the slalom and 11th in the giant slalom. Those results helped Josh earn Paralympics Australia’s Rookie of the Year.
In early 2025, Josh won his first World Cup medal, taking bronze in the slalom at an event in Germany, adding to encouraging performances in Switzerland, Norway and elsewhere. He is now on track to represent Australia at Milano Cortina.
Josh grew up in the town of Weethalle, population 300, and had two great uncles who played rugby league for Australia. He has Certificates 3 and 4 in physical fitness and is passionate about helping kids with a disability become involved in sport. His favourite hobbies are working out at the gym, shooting and motorbike riding.
Josh said he loved skiing because of the feeling of freedom from “gliding along, using the edges and carving turns. You don’t feel like you’re held back at all”. He makes for a spectacular sight tearing down the slope in his ‘bucket’, but he also loves the day-to-day grind of training.
“Just getting better in the gym and then getting better on snow and seeing how those two correspond,” he said.
“A lot of dedication is needed to succeed, a lot of hard work. It takes a bit of forward thinking and planning, setting some goals along the way. Getting that dialled in now is important.
“I’m very proud to be a Paralympian. From being in hospital and realising that you’re disabled and realising there is a pathway and just giving it everything I had and being able to make it, it was really cool.”
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