Michael Milton usually goes to bed about 7pm, before an early morning of setting up racecourses on the mountains of Thredbo. But one winter night, he couldn’t sleep.
“You always have your best ideas when you’re going to sleep,” Milton said.
Three-time cancer survivor and Paralympian Michael Milton is aiming to qualify for his sixth winter Paralympics. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The idea was to try and qualify for his sixth winter Paralympics, 20 years after his last, at the age of 52.
After collecting the most Paralympic medals of any Australian skier – 11 across five Games, including six gold – Milton left the sport in 2006 and competed in para-cycling at the Beijing Summer Games in 2008. In 2006, he broke the world record for the fastest speed by a one-legged skier and, in 2013, for the fastest marathon completed with crutches.
Though he has retired twice from competitive skiing and recovered from his third cancer diagnosis 43 years after osteosarcoma left him an amputee, Milton is back.
“You go through cancer, you get told about survival rates of what you’re going through,” he said. “Obviously, three cancers, different survival rates for each of those. I believe that the fourth round of cancer for me is more [of a] when, not if. It makes you want to squeeze the marrow out of life. It makes you want to use the time that you’ve got to the fullest.
“You know the idea of skiing down the side of the mountains, and challenging myself, and going fast, and feeling the cold wind on my face, these are things that excite me.”
Milton, who lives in Canberra most of the year, has months to qualify for the 2026 Paralympics in Milan, aiming to submit his times in February. He’s off to a good start, having won two events – slalom and giant slalom – at the national championships last month.
