Four-time Winter Paralympian Ben Tudhope has returned from Italy to the Northern Beaches with a silver in SB-LL2 snowboard cross and a bronze in banked slalom, adding to a career that continues to defy both geography and his own expectation.
“It is not until you get the medal, and you see the people around you and the nations’ flags go up that you realise: wow, this is a massive moment that will go down in history.
“No one can change this now and this medal is going to be mine forever,” Tudhope said.
“From Beijing to now, every second, every minute, every hour of my life has led up to this moment.”
Heading into Milano Cortina, Tudhope faced a new kind of pressure after winning bronze in snowboard cross at the 2022 Games.
“I have not been a medallist going into a Games before, so there was a new level of pressure,” he said.
“It is funny because it has been one of my worst seasons.
“This year, I only made three podiums out of 10 in the lead-up to the Games, so there was no expectation from myself.”
That changed when he saw the course he would be competing on.
“I was so hyped,” he said.
“I knew the course suited my strengths.”
During the first opportunity to ride the boarder cross track, five athletes were injured, and changes were made, before two more picked up injuries and the course was redesigned again, leaving Tudhope little time to familiarise himself with the layout he would race on.
“There were two big jumps in the middle where you got a lot of airtime, but they cut all of that out, which made it a lot safer for everyone,” he said.
“All the features were just heightened, which is what you want at the showcase of the sport, so it will look really good on TV.”
“I was in the gate, pretty happy with my bracket, the people I was racing, and then I pulled out, and that is when my shoulder went.
“I felt my shoulder pop out and then pop back into place about five seconds later.”
With limited time, he beckoned his physio over who strapped him up behind a tree.
“I told the media my medical team did an assessment.
“It was not a medical team, just a physio and an admin staff member who was helping cut tape,” he said.
Despite the injury, he delivered when it mattered most, beating Italian snowboarder Emanuel Perathoner by 2.14 seconds, with Perathoner later winning gold in banked slalom, where Tudhope placed third.
“I knew I could perform, but to do it on that day was absolutely spectacular,” he said.
“All my friends and family were there, so it was a dream to do it while they were all watching.”
At 26, Tudhope is one of Australia’s most experienced Paralympians, an extraordinary achievement for an athlete raised so far from the slopes.
Growing up by the beach did not stop his family from pursuing their passion for snow.
“We have always just loved snow,” he said.
“I first saw snow when I was six months old, started skiing when I was three, and snowboarding when I was eight.
“My family thought because we live by a beach, why don’t all our holidays be to the snow.”
Those holidays were anything but casual.
They involved long, regular drives from Sydney to Victoria’s alpine region.
“We would spend hours and hours in the car travelling to Mount Hotham,” Tudhope said.
“We were that crazy family from the Northern Beaches who would drive six hours every single weekend, on a Friday night after school, down to the snow and then come back on a Sunday to attend school for the week.”
Born with left hemiplegic cerebral palsy, Tudhope said sport was always part of his life, even if early results did not come easily.
“I went to Shore in North Sydney,” he said.
“It was very traditional sports: rugby, rowing, soccer, basketball, and cricket.
“I delved into all of them and loved them, but I was no good.
“I sucked at every single sport I did, but I bloody loved it, as every kid does.”
Snowboarding, however, was different.
“When I found snowboarding, it was something I took a passion to instantly.”
Unlike skiing, the mechanics of snowboarding suited him better.
“Skiing, I was never good at, and I think that was a coordination problem that excelled due to the CP, because there are two separate things on your legs and you are holding two poles,” he said.
“To coordinate planting a pole down at the same time as turning was definitely harder.”
Tudhope’s entry into the sport was not through a disability pathway, rather, he was thrust into groups with his older sisters.
“I was not treated like someone with a disability,” he said.
“I was pushed into this able-bodied programme and none of the kids in that programme knew I had cerebral palsy.
“Probably 80% of the parents did not even know.
“I was just training and loving snowboarding like anyone else.”
A coach eventually recognised his potential and connected him with Australia’s Paralympic programme, opening a door Tudhope had not even known existed.
“When I was about 11 or 12 I met the Paralympic head coach for the first time,” he said.
“This was probably three years into snowboarding, my skills were good but not crazy amazing, I just remember I had no fear as a young kid.
“I was the one hitting all the jumps and being the guinea pig for everyone else.”
Within a year, he was competing internationally.
At just 13, he qualified for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympics, becoming the youngest Winter Paralympian in history.
At the time, however, the magnitude of the achievement was lost on him.
“I was just happy to miss school.”
Living with cerebral palsy presents challenges, particularly with fine motor skills, but Tudhope said it has never defined his limits on the snow.
“Because I have had my disability all my life, I do not know the difference of snowboarding, with or without it,” he said.
“My cerebral palsy affects muscle control and coordination.
“I have found a way to be able to live a normal life, where I can be independent from everyone and I think I take that into my snowboarding.”
Progress came through persistence.
“I am a very patient person, I would just repeat and repeat and repeat until I got something done,” he said.
“I can do it, it just takes a bit of brain power.”
That mindset extends to how he measures himself.
“I always compare myself not to my sport, but to the best in the world, which is the able-bodied guys.”
Now balancing elite sport with a full-time role at Burton Snowboards, Tudhope said his approach to pressure remains simple.
“My secret weapon when I am in those high pressure environments and I am in the big final of a Paralympic Games fighting for medals, is really to think of myself as a 14 year old just loving snowboarding.”
