{"id":542961,"date":"2026-03-16T00:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542961\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T00:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:32:11","slug":"comebacks-medals-and-hopes-for-the-future-how-australia-fared-at-the-milano-cortina-winter-paralympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542961\/","title":{"rendered":"Comebacks, medals and hopes for the future \u2014 how Australia fared at the Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The competition has ended after 10 days of action at the Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics.<\/p>\n

The Australian team had a mix of moments \u2014 from a para-snowboarder winning two medals to the country’s greatest-ever Winter Paralympian making a comeback, and a number of new faces getting started on their Paralympic careers.<\/p>\n

Here is a rundown of how things went for Australia in Italy.<\/p>\n

Australia at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics<\/p>\n

Medals: Two (silver, bronze)<\/p>\n

Ranking: Tied for 21st (of 55) with Poland<\/p>\n

The star\"An<\/p>\n

Ben Tudhope became the joint third most successful Australian of all time at the Winter Paralympics. (Getty Images: Marcus Hartmann)<\/p>\n

Just as he did at the 2022 Beijing Games, snowboard star Ben Tudhope delivered for Australia in Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now a four-time Paralympian, the 26-year-old overcame a dislocated shoulder to win the SB-LL2 snowboard cross silver and banked slalom bronze for Australia’s only medals.<\/p>\n

He was given the honour of being Australia’s flag-bearer alongside Georgia Gunew at the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

Tough going\"An<\/p>\n

Australian para-alpine skier Josh Hanlon finished on a high with a ninth place in the men’s slalom sitting. (Getty Images: Marcus Hartmann)<\/p>\n

Promising sit-skier Josh Hanlon endured a nightmare start to his Milan-Cortina campaign, crashing out of the downhill and super-G sitting events.<\/p>\n

Hanlon, who had impressed in his debut at the Beijing Games, improved on the final day of competition to snare a ninth-place finish in the slalom sitting for his best result.<\/p>\n

The stat\"An<\/p>\n

Australian para-alpine skier Georgia Gunew, with guide Ethan Jackson, has her eyes on 2030 after a top-10 finish. (Supplied: Australian Paralympic Team\/Jeff Crow)<\/p>\n

Australia boasted a record number of five women winter athletes at the Milano-Cortina Games, after Melissa Perrine and Rae Anderson were the only women to compete in the 2022 Beijing Games.<\/p>\n

A total of 160 women competed in Italy \u2014 an increase from the previous record of 136 in Beijing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Taryn Dickens became the first woman to compete in the vision-impaired Nordic sports for Australia.<\/p>\n

Farewells\"Michael<\/p>\n

Australia’s greatest Winter Paralympian, Michael Milton, returned at 52 to compete in his sixth Games. (Getty Images: Tom Weller)<\/p>\n

Michael Milton would not rule out vying for a seventh Paralympic appearance, but the 52-year-old would not say he will either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After pulling off a remarkable 20-year comeback, Australia has likely seen the last of Milton in competition.<\/p>\n

The six-time gold medallist, less than a month after undergoing surgery for a leg fracture, finished 13th in the alpine combined for his best finish in Italy.<\/p>\n

They said it<\/p>\n

“F*** off,” Milton said when he was asked if he would compete at the 2030 French Alps Games.<\/p>\n

Next gen\"An<\/p>\n

Liana France is Australia’s youngest-ever female Winter Paralympian. (Getty Images: Dario Belingheri)<\/p>\n

At 16, alpine skier Liana France is Australia’s youngest female winter Paralympian. France has already marked herself as one to watch, finishing 14th in both the giant slalom and slalom standing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fellow alpine skier Georgia Gunew boasts just as much potential after an impressive 10th-place finish in the vision-impaired giant slalom, just three years since she started competitive skiing.<\/p>\n

AAP\/ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The competition has ended after 10 days of action at the Milano-Cortina Winter Paralympics. The Australian team had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,267207,268978,263243,265986,263242,142583,588,85,189415],"class_list":["post-542961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ben-tudhope","tag-georgia-gunew","tag-josh-hanlon","tag-liana-france","tag-michael-milton","tag-milano-cortina","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-winter-paralympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}