‘Mind-blowing’: honour for man behind snow sports glory
For more than two decades, Michael Kennedy helped Australia’s winter athletes chase their Olympic dreams.
The master sports executive has now embarked on a journey of his own.
After taking a break from his 23-year career as managing director of Snow Australia following the country’s record-breaking Winter Olympics campaign in Italy in February, Kennedy returned abroad to pursue a personal goal.
Kennedy received news of his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) at the King’s Birthday Honors ceremony while walking the 790km Camino Frances with his wife Shannah.
He said the walk from France to Spain, which lasted an average of 25km a day for 40 days, gave him time to reflect on his career as the architect of Australia’s emergence as a global winter sports hub.
“I had already started the Camino (when I heard about the award), so sitting here trying to process the last 20-odd years and everything that’s happened, it’s just been mind-blowing,” Kennedy told AAP.
“Obviously it’s pretty humbling and I’m pretty grateful for that, but I think there’s a lot of other people who are also involved in this journey, so it’s been a team effort as much as anything else.
“I’m happy to be recognized, but I accept it on behalf of others.”
Kennedy took over the role of chief executive in 2002, ending the longest tenure for a sports executive in any major sporting code in Australia.
His connections with snow sports began as a child on the Mt Buller slopes, before he began competing among the World Cup giants and later moved into coaching and high performance roles.
He was part of Alisa Camplin’s Olympic victory in Salt Lake City in 2002; The aviator had won Australia’s first gold medal in skiing.
At Milan-Cortina, Australia finished 14th in the medal standings, winning six medals, including three gold.
But Kennedy said there were achievements beyond the medals he was most proud of: helping unite the fragmented winter sports scene and building the National Snow Sports Training Centre, a multi-sport venue in Jindabyne that opens in 2024.
“It’s been a seven-year labor of love and now it’s working; you see athletes from different sports training, there are kids from the local community there giving trampoline lessons, there are Olympic champions in the gym,” he said.
“This is a true home for snow and winter sports…a field of dreams.”
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
