Cameron Rahles Rahbula, Mitchell Gourley and Toby Kane interview originally done for Wikinews
Gourley became involved in high level Paralympic skiing as a result of Australian talent identification efforts,[10] taking up the sport competitively in 2002 as an eleven-year-old.[3] He was classified as LW6/8-2,[11] the classification for athletes with an impairment to one arm,[12] and made his Australian national team début in 2006, as a fifteen-year-old.[3] He has held scholarships with the Victorian Institute of Sport and the Australian Institute of Sport.[13]
Mitchell Gourley competing in the super-G during the second day of the 2012 IPC Nor Am Cup at Copper Mountain
Gourley competed at the 2010 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup in Italy and World Cup in Austria.[14] Going into the 2010 Winter Paralympic Games, his best ever world ranking was 17th.[3] He attempted to bulk up and put on additional weight by eating six to eight meals a day.[7] He arrived in the Paralympic village with the rest of Australia's Para-alpine team on 9 March 2010.[17] Coached by Steve Graham,[3] he competed in the downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined events.[18][19] In the super-G standing event, he finished 10th.[4][20] He also finished 27th in the slalom.[21][22][23] He came 30th in the giant slalom event.[24]
Gourley talks to the media after a race at Sochi 2014 Paralympics
At the December 2011 IPC Nor Am Cup, Gourley won his first gold medal in international competition in the giant slalom,[25] but was beaten by New Zealand's Adam Hall and Australian teammate Toby Kane in the slalom.[26] He competed at a February 2012 World Cup event in Italy in the slalom, but did not place in the event. After sitting in fourth place after his first run, he missed a gate in his second run and was disqualified.[27] He won a gold medal in the giant slalom with a combined run time of 2:03.15, 0.43 seconds faster than the silver medallists. It was the first gold medal he had won at a World Cup.[25]
Gourley started the 2013/14 World Cup season with strong results, with two gold, three silver and one bronze medal.[11] At the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, he competed in five events. He finished 5th in the men's super combined standing, 7th in the men's downhill standing, and failed to finish in three events.[28][29]
Gourley competes in the SuperG event at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics
He finished the 2015/16 World Cup season on a high, placing third on the overall rankings after a successful run of events that saw him podium nine times.[31]
Gourley won the gold medal in the men's Super Combined Standing at the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Tarvisio, Italy. Gourley was in sixth place after the super-G, but put on a masterclass in the slalom to secure the gold.[32]
His results at the 2018 Winter Paralympics, his third Games, were: fifth in the men's Super Combined Standing, sixth in the men's slalom Standing, eighth in the men's giant slalom Standing, 12th in the men's Super-G Standing and did not finish in the men's Downhill Standing.[33][34]
At the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing, he finished 10th in the giant slalom Standing, 13th in Super Combined Standing and 20th in Downhill Standing. He did not finish in the slalom Standing and Super G Standing.[36] Gourley indicated that the Beijing Games would be his last Winter Paralympics.
In 2022, he is a member of the Athlete Commission for World Para Alpine Skiing and Paralympics Australia Athlete Commission.[37]
^"Mitchell Gourley". Organizing Committee of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014 in Sochi. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
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