Graham was born on 23 January 1962 in Palm Beach, Queensland. His hobbies include doing pilates, spending time with his family and going to the beach.[1]
Coaching
Steve Graham and skier Lincoln Budge at the 2012 IPC NorAm Cup
Graham is a skiing coach for Paralympic athletes whose focus is coaching on sitting, standing and vision impaired skiers.[2] His coaching philosophy involves athletes training hard every day as if the next day they would be competing in an event.[3] He mentored and coached Michael Milton, Australia's first Winter Paralympics medallist.[1][4] Milton gave one of the gold medals he earned at the 2002 Winter Paralympics to Graham.[4][5] Graham also coached Jessica Gallagher, Australia's first female Winter Paralympic medallist,[3] and Cameron Rahles Rahbula.[6] He helped the Australian ski team finish sixth at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Korea in 2009,[1] where two athletes that he coached individually, Cameron Rahles‐Rahbula and Shannon Dallas, finished in first place.[1][7] Other athletes he has coached include Mitchell Gourley, who finished first in the giant slalom event at Australian National Skiing Championships.[8]
Graham has spoken out against the classification system used by the International Paralympic Committee when it comes to classifying skiers. He felt the system was unfair. In an interview with Cerebral Palsy Australia, he said "We have three of the best 5 or 6 skiers in the world in the standing class and in the old system we would’ve won 8 or 10 medals. The new system definitely affected the Australian team achieving its medal goals.”[13]
Recognition
In 2010, Graham was a finalist the Coach of the Year award given by the Australian Institute of Sport.[14] That same year, Graham was also named by Australian Paralympic Committee as the Coach of the Year.[15]
References
^ abcdefg"Steve Graham". Vancouver, Canada: Australian Paralympic Committee. 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2011.
Australia
Biography
