Cootamundra’s Richard Nott recently returned home from Aspen with a bronze medal from the World Synchro Ski Championships
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Nott was put on skis when he was just three years old by his dad Phil and has gone from strength to strength in the snow.
He spends the Australian summer skiing professionally at the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort in Canada and at the end of the northern winter returns to Cootamundra for a month before heading to Falls Creek in Victoria to spend the Australian winter skiing.
Nott’s endless winter has seen him spend 26 consecutive seasons on skis.
This season, he was selected in the Whistler Blackcomb High Performance Demo Team to compete at the World Championships, along with nine other ski professionals.
With more than 1200 ski professionals working at the resort, Nott’s selection in the team was a great achievement in itself.
The mountain he works and skis on has a strong international flavour to it and most years is voted the number one resort in North America.
This multicultural feel is reflected in the team Nott skied at the championships with which included five Canadians, two Englishmen, one Aussie (Nott), one Austrian and one person from New Zealand.
The championships comprised three disciplines including racing, bump skiing and finally technical synchronised skiing.
The last discipline was worth 70 per cent of the overall mark of teams.
Whistler Blackcomb has never sent a team to the World Championships before so all, including Nott, were elated to see the very new team finish on the podium.
The team contained fast and talented skiers, however all lacked experience in the technical aspects of synchronised skiing.
It did not matter in the end as the team came away with third.
The winning team from Telluride in southern Colorado have skied and trained together for 10 years, placing many times before winning gold for the first time this year.
The silver medal was won by an Argentinian team comprising skiers who all work and train together in various resorts across North America.
Nott’s success in the snow follows a lifetime of sporting achievement.
Many years ago he was recognised as the Cootamundra Sports Foundation Junior Sportsperson of the Year after winning gold and silver medals at a national level in cross country running.
