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, clocking an amazing 213.65km/hr. 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. Michael Milton knows what it takes to win.
But, when he was diagnosed with Oesophageal Cancer in July 2007, he knew he was facing the biggest battle of his life. And, with a daughter not even a year old, he simply had to win. Less than 12 months later and after radiation therapy, chemotherapy and radical surgery, Michael was selected to compete at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games where he finished in the top ten in two events.
Since then he’s taken on triathlon and gained top ten placings in the last two World Championships. Recently he completed his first ever marathon. Running the 42km course on crutches, he smashed the Guinness World Record by almost 80 minutes, crossing the finish line after 5 hours, 23 minutes and 30 seconds. He now holds two world records.
He is truly one of this nation’s most inspirational and successful athletes… Please welcome… the amazing and unstoppable Michael Milton.
