As one of Australia’s most successful athletes Michael Milton is no stranger to a battle.

He lost his left leg to bone cancer at nine, competed in his first Paralympic Games at 14 and won Australia’s first ever winter gold medal at just 19… a full decade before Steven Bradbury’s Olympic gold medal.

In an international ski racing career spanning 20 years, he won 22 medals, 12 of them gold. He is Australia’s fastest ever skier and the world’s fastest skier with a disability. He’s scaled Mt Kilimanjaro and walked the Kokoda Track twice.

After competing in his fifth winter Paralympic Games, Michael turned his sights on cycling and won the 3000m pursuit at the Australian Track Cycling Championships and went on to race at his first summer Paralympic Games in Beijing.

He’s represented Australia in four different sports – ski racing, speed skiing, para-triathlon and para-cycling. He holds world records for the fastest five kilometres running on crutches, the fastest marathon running on crutches and the fastest skier with a disability.

In 2024 the Sport Australia Hall of Fame recognised Michael as the 51st Legend of Australian Sport, joining the likes of Dawn Fraser, Don Bradman, Rod Laver and Cathy Freeman.

Last year, after retiring from ski racing 20 years ago, Michael decided to return to ski racing. At 52 years of age he funded his own comeback and qualified to race at the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games in all five events. But three weeks out from the Games, he fell in training and broke his femur. Surgery followed and lots of rest and then, on 9th March, he stood in the start gate for the Super Giant Slalom, marking an incredible return and his seventh Paralympic Games.

Michael Milton knows what it takes to win… and that’s not just on the sporting field.

He is a three-time cancer survivor, the third diagnosed just over two years: three primary cancers, seemingly unrelated, at 9 years of age, 34 and 50 and yet he is still here. In an interview following his elevation to Australian Sporting Legend, Michael said “I’m pretty happy this isn’t being awarded posthumously.”