Almanac Winter Olympics: Remembering Ross Milne
Remembering Ross Milne
From February 6, until February 22, the 2026 Winter Olympics takes place in the
Northeastern corner of Italy. The Australian contingent is 17 competitors across five
events.
Australia first competed at the Winter Olympics back in 1936. These games were
conducted at Garmicsh-Partenkirchen in Germany. It took Australia quite a few
attempts to finally have a competitor on the podium. The short track relay team won
Australia’s first Winter Olympic Medal. This being a bronze at Lillehammer in Norway,
1994. After this breakthrough more medals arrived. This included the first gold on
February 16, 2002, at Salt Lake City. In a spectacular result Australia’s Steven Bradbury
retained his feet as all the other competitors toppled over in the short track speed
skating. Bradbury’s gold was the first of what is now six Australian gold medals. Sadly,
there’s usually no triumph without tragedy, and to this sad point I’ll turn.
The saddest moment in Australian Winter Olympic history was the 1964 death of
skier Ross Milne. This occurred in Innsbruck Austria.
Milne was a promising downhill skier. He grew up in Myrtleford, Northeastern
Victoria, situated in Victoria’s high country, not far from the ski fields such as Mount
Hotham, and Mount Buffalo.
From an early age he showed promise in his chosen sport. Aged 13 he began
skiing, rapidly rising in the ranks winning his local junior skiing championship in three
consecutive years. Aged 16 he was part of a National Team facing New Zealand in an
Inter-Dominion championship.
His skiing skills continued developing quickly, gaining further good results
including a victory in the 1963 New South Wales winter salom. Fine performances in
the 1963 Mount Hotham National Championships, virtually assured he was a shoo in
for the 1964 Winter Olympics.
After doing well in Australia Milne was considered a competitor who’d do u s
proud, being rated Australia’s best downhill skier. He’d spent part of 1963 kling on the
European circuit providing him with some knowledge of the conditions, and challenges,
over there. Thus, when he arrived with the Australian team there were hopes Australia
would show the world we could compete on the snow. Australia sought credibility.
Milne was one of four males in the six-member squad. Starting with a sole
participant in 1936, for many years Australian squads for the Winter Olympics were
small.
January 25, 1964, the 19-year-old Milne was practicing on the downhill course.
Concerns were raised about the safety of this course. A dry prelude had seen snow
transported in to spread across the downhill course. There were fears the area was now
too fast, so precautions such a s sandbags against some of the trees were
implemented.
Around 11:30 that fateful morning Milne set off on his training run, then after
traveling circa 200 metres he encountered a very steep, quick, section of the course.
Milne travelling around 65 KPH when he encountered a group in his path. As well as
skiers, there were apparently spectators mingling among the grouping. Milne swerved to
miss them, with fatal consequences. Milne tragically skidded off course into a tree.
Despite the best efforts of first aiders, he was pronounced dead on arrival in hospital.
Finger pointing, as if oft the wont, followed as to who was responsible for Milne’s death.
Some of the event organisers viewed that Milne, as an Australian, did not have
the expertise to handle the European terrain, basically blaming the victim. Such was
their perspective that in the Committees’ final report on the 1964 games Milne’s death
was written as, “The fatal accident happened on an entirely innocuous part of the
course. The safety measures in place were far above the normal level”. The intimation
being that Australians could not compete in the downhill skiing.
Edmund Schaedler of Lichenstein also suffered a serious injury whilst practicing
on the downhill course. Another injured was the champion French downhill skier, Emile
Violat. Some belated improvements including extra sandbagging around the trees were
put in place prior to the competition commencing on January 30. Sadly, in the case of
Ross Milne, too little, too late. Still the tragedies in Innsbruck had not ended.
Another death during the practice runs was England’s Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypecki.
On January 21 when practicing for the luge competition he suffered serious injuries. The
following day he died whilst undergoing surgery.
The opening ceremony recognised these deaths with a minute’s silence; then the
1964 Winter Olympics commenced.
Unsurprisingly a devastated Australian team struggled in the games. Our first
Winter Olympic medal was still thirty years away. Milne’s teammate, the experienced
Peter Brockhoff, withdrew from the downhill event, though the rest of the small team
competed in their events. There was a desire to prove to the world Australians could
master downhill skiing, thus the remaining participants sought to do the memory of
Ross Milne proud.
Deaths still occur in the Winter Olympics. The most recent was in Vancouver,
Canada back in 2010 when the Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a
training mishap. Beyond the Winter Olympics, skiing, and other snow-based activities,
can carry serious risks to life, and limb.
Over six decades later Australian athletes prepare for their 22nd Winter
Olympics. This team of 17, eight men, and nine women, will participate in five sports during February.
I’ll dare say there will be a few blurry eyes around the nation after late viewings of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Glen!
More from Glen! can be read Here.
To return to the www.footyalmanac.com.au home page click HERE
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help keep things ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE
About Glen d
Great article and tribute to the late Australian Alpine ski racer, Ross Milne, who tragically passed away aged 19, on 25 January 1964, during a training run.
As the Winter Olympics has officially commenced and the fact that the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be starting today, it got me thinking of doing a cricket team where every player’s surname has something to do with either the Winter Olympics, name of Ski Resorts, famous Winter Gold Medalists, Winter Weather or Winter Clothes. The idea can also be part of the surname.
It doesn’t matter if the player has played Test Cricket, ODI cricket for their country or first class cricket only. The surname can only be used once and the spelling doesn’t matter, as long as it’s spelt similarly or sounds similarly.
This is the World Cricket Team for the Winter Olympics:
Aamer SOHAIL (c) (47 Tests Pakistan 1992-2000/HAIL as part of surname)
Michael SLATER (74 Tests Australia/surname resembles SLEET and rhymes with SKATER – Ice)
John PARKER (36 Tests New Zealand 1973-80/PARKA for Winter Weather)
David MALAN (22 Tests South Africa 2017-22/MILAN Winter Olympics 2026)
Clive RICE (3 ODIs South Africa 1991/ICE as part of his surname)
Peter SLEEP (14 Tests Australia 1979-90/surname reminds me of SLOPE as in Ski Slope)
Roger WOOLLEY (wk) (2 Tests Australia 1983/84/WOOL Clothing for Winter)
Ray BRIGHT (25 Tests Australia 1977-86/shares surname with Torah Bright/Bright Ski Centre)
Nick WINTER (22 FC SA 2014/15-2021/22/WINTER Olympics)
John SNOW (49 Tests England 1965-76/SNOW for Winter Olympics)
Lance MORRIS (3 ODIs Australia 20204/surname spelt similar to St MORITZ, luxury alpine resort)
12th man: WILL PUCOVSKI (1 Test Australia 20121/SKI at end of his surname)
Concussion Sub: Aiden BLIZZARD (21 FC VIC/SA 2005/06-2010/11/BLIZZARD snowstorm)
Unfortunately, this team definitely needs a concussion sub for dangerous Winter Olympic sports.
This team will play a pretend exhibition match against the VFL/AFL Hot Weather Team.
Venue: WINTER Stadium, Raman Gan, Tel Aviv District, Israel
Entertainment: Andrea Bocelli and The song “Winter in America”, by Doug Ashdown
Let’s hope for a good game of cricket where the World Cricket Team for the Winter Olympics won’t be snowed under!
Vielen Danke Stephen.
Yes, a concussion sub is a requirement. Though it wasn’t his first test it was as the concussion sub Marnus Labuschagne made inroads into a regular spot for Australia.
VFL/AFL Hot Weather Team: surely a cricketing team would merit selection. ‘Fiery’ Fred Trueman, Jake Weatherald, also some redheads like Ben Stokes, Craig McDermott, are all worthy of consideration. Red being the heat symbol.
Winter in America, Doug Ashdown, 1976 , was a wonderful song. Though Doug Ashdown had a long, distinguished career, he never had another song reach that status.
Glen!
The Hot Weather Cricket Team has now been selected. The best composite Brisbane HEAT and Perth SCORCHERS team could have been selected instead, but a stronger team on paper was chosen instead.
As mentioned in the previous comment, this team will play a pretend exhibition match against the World Cricket Team for the Winter Olympics. Preference was given to players who have played Test Cricket, One Day or T20 Internationals for their country. Preference was also given to players who have Sun somewhere in their first name, surname or nickname.
In order to strengthen this team, players with first names, surnames or nicknames that were spelt similarly to the warm weather were included. eg Warner for Warmer, Warne for Warm, Fleming for Flaming and Blake for Bake. The names were allowed to be used more than once and players who have only played first class cricket were also eligible.
Ray Bright was also included for the Hot Weather Team too, because Ray could be for Ray of Sunshine and Bright for Bright Sunshine. Bright will bat and bowl for both teams in the match.
Some players were named out of the position in the batting order, due to the high number of openers. Also, it was very hard to find a wicketkeeper, so that honour went to David Warner, who once filled in as a wicketkeeper for Australia during the 2014 Boxing Day Test against Pakistan after Brad Haddin was injured, taking a catch and conceding four byes in that role.
This is the World Cricket Hot Weather Team:
Alaistair COOK (COOK)
SUNIL (SUNNY) Gavaskar (SUN as part of 1st name/nickname SUNNY)
Stephen FLEMING (c) (Fleming spelt like FLAMING)
Rory BURNS (BURNS)
Joe BURNS (BURNS)
David WARNER (wk) (Warner spelt like WARMER)
SUNDEEP Jora (5 ODIs/6 T20s Nepal,2019-24/SUN as part of 1st name)
Washington SUNDAR (17 Tests India 2017-pres/SUN as part of surname)
RAY BRIGHT (BRIGHT RAY of sunshine)
Shane WARNE (Warne spelt like WARM)
Damien FLEMING (Fleming spelt like FLAMING)
12th man: BLAKE Nikitaras (18 FC NSW 2021/22-pres/Blake spelt like BAKE)
Concussion Sub: BLAKE McDonald (8 FC NSW/VIC 2023/24-pres/Blake spelt like BAKE)
Let’s hope for a good game of cricket the players won’t be too hot and cold!
Thank you for your timely article Glen.
Ross Milne had a younger brother named Malcolm who became the first Australian
to win a World Cup skiing event in 1969.
He was motivated by attempts by the IOC to blame Ross.
“ What motivated me most was this suggestion from Europe that skiers from minor
(winter sport) countries like Australia and New Zealand should maybe not be
allowed to race on difficult courses…….that such accidents might not happen if skiers
with less experience were barred from competition. I was only young at the time but I
knew very well that it was a cover-up kind of story. It made me want to prove that we
were capable of racing downhill.”
Hello Glen.
Thank you for your fine effort – a truly tragic accident.
I must confess I wasn’t aware of Ross’ story. Whilst I have just a passing interest in the Winter Olympics, I’ll be thinking about him when I tune in over the next fortnight.
Look forward to your next story, keep up the great work.
MCR
Two golds so far: well done to the Australian athletes.
Scotty James, what can you say? The constant hype from the commentators are how well he would do, portrayed as a Gold certainty, but not to be: Silver. Then the same commentators who were pumping his tyres up so much, then waxed lyrical about his great Silver.
I’ve never been a fan of jingoistic commentary, or commentators who want to scream, use loud hyperbole to get ‘their’ message across: oh for the days of Richie Benaud. Thank goodness for Matt Hill. His ability to commentate in a nuanced detailed manner on a range of sports is great. More Matt Hill, less of the others.
Glen!
Now that the competition for the Winter Olympics 2026 is officially over, this article that pays tribute to Ross Milne, got me thinking of doing an Australian Test cricket team where the surname of each player shares a surname (or in the case of Smith, Begg-Smith is close enough) with an Australian Winter Olympian, who has either won a Winter Olympic Medal or who has competed for Australia in the Winter Olympics of 2026.
The spelling doesn’t matter, as long as it’s spelt similarly. If an athlete has won more than 1 Winter Olympic medal, only one of the best medals will be shown in brackets.
Some players were named out of position in the batting order, due to the high number of openers. Bill Brown was selected as the wicketkeeper, as he managed 1 dismissal as a wicketkeeper, at first class level.
This is the Australian Test Cricket Team of Winter Olympic Medalists/2026 Winter Olympic Athletes:
Phil HUGHES (Jarryd HUGHES/Silver Medalist Snowboarding 2018)
Graeme WOOD (Cooper WOODS/Gold Freestyle Skiing 2026)
Neil HARVEY (Jackson HARVEY/Winter Olympics 2026/Dual Moguls)
Steve SMITH (Dale Begg-SMITH/Gold Freestyle Skiing 2010)
Arthur MORRIS (David MORRIS/Silver Freestyle Skiing 2014)
Marcus HARRIS (Molly HARRIS/Ice Dance 2026)
Bill BROWN (wk) (Indra BROWN/Winter Olympics 2026/Freeskiing Halfpipe)
Ray BRIGHT (Torah BRIGHT/Gold Snowboarding Halfpipe 2010)
Max WALKER (Bree WALKER/Winter Olympics 2026/Two-Woman Bobsleigh)
Todd MURPHY (George MURPHY/2026 Winter Olympics/Dual Moguls)
Paul WILSON (Charlotte WILSON/2026 Winter Olympics/Dual Moguls)
This team will play a pretend exhibition match against the World Cricket Team for the Winter Olympics, named in the comment on February 7, 2026.
Ray Bright will play for both teams and the venues and entertainment will remain the same.
Let’s hope for a good game of cricket, that will be the ICING on the cake!