Snow Australia says Weethalle's Josh Hanlon is in their planning for the Beijing Paralympics in March.
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Hanlon is about to represent Australia in sit-skiing at the Para Snow Sports World Championships this month, competing in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Snow Australia is the organisation which manages the country's Para-skiing high performance program and the nomination process for Beijing 2022.
High performance program manager Ben Wordsworth told The Daily Advertiser that the Riverina 24-year-old - who left with the national squad but not technically as part of the team - is considered a Para-alpine skier of the future for Australia and is well in the frame for the Winter Paralympics in China.
"He's great. He's obviously one of our developmental athletes. He's come on board in the last couple of years and progressed really well, which I think is testament to his attitude, he's got an amazing attitude," Wordsworth said.
"He is travelling with the high performance team at the moment. He's immersed in that program in the daily training environment and we think that he's going to qualify for Beijing and go with the rest of the team.
"I think for him it will be a huge learning experience this year - it already has been."
It's a remarkable rise for a former Australian rules ruckman who first tried sit-skiing in the winter of 2019. That was only 12 months after he had his lower legs and right hand amputed following a life-threatening injury.
"It can take a long time to get into winter sport and really understand it, epsecially Paralympics - it's not easy to learn," Wordsworth said.
"But we haven't really been surprised...he works in well with the coaches and fits in well with the other athletes and he really focusses on what he wants to do.
"That's such a big part of it, to be able to learn as much as you can from the team. He's really good at that so his progression is always trending upwards and in that sport it can be quite a quick progression."
The deadline to meet the criteria for the Beijing Paralympics is mid-February after which Snow Australia sends its nominations to Paralympics Australia, although Wordsworth said their team could well be finalised by the end of this month.
"We want to take a full team. We want to support the Paralympic movement and athletes like Josh who are development athletes who could gain a wealth of experience from their first Paralympics and then turn that around in four years time into Milan and hopefully be a podium athlete," he said.
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Hanlon is currently overcoming a bout of COVID-19, with the team leaving him behind in isolation in Prague for at least a week.
It will impact his world championships preparation but Wordsworth said it's a battle many athletes are facing these days, and the timing is better now than during the worlds or between the two major events.
It's unusual to have a world championships and Winter Paralympics in the same year but this month's event in Lillehammer, Norway, was postponed last year due to COVID, making for a massive 2022 for winter Para-athletes.
"I think the world championships will be good for everyone. We don't usually have the two events in the one year, they're normally offset," Wordsworth said.
"I think this will be a good warm-up for the Paralympics and we're hoping everyone has a strong showing to take some confidence into the Games."
Snow Australia expects some retirements after Beijing and said it's important to develop the next generation of Winter Paralympians who will become the leaders of future Australian teams.
Wordsworth said more world-class competition is the key, as well as adjusting to life on the road as an elite athlete.
"It's a matter of getting him exposed to enough racing, high-level competition, and it also takes a bit of time to get into the groove of travelling internationally, understanding how it all works, get used to the travel, living with other athletes and the team," he said.
"It's a big learning experience and with Josh, he takes all that on board, he's super positive and it shows in his progression in the sport."
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