Winter Paralympics 2022: Flag bearer Mel Perrine opens up on mix-up with guide and competing at fourth Games

Flag bearer Mel Perrine is competing at her fourth Winter Paralympics, but even she nearly had a horror mix-up with her sighted guide.

SLTraining / Josh Hanlon Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games Paralympics Australia / Day 1 Beijing China: Saturday 5 March 2022 © Sport the library / Jeff Crow / PA

Four-time Winter Paralympian Mel Perrine and sighted guide Bobbi Kelly spend more time with each other than their friends, families or partners – and they barely share five words.

‘Forward’, ‘turn’, ‘roll’, ‘pitch’, ‘flat’: these relatively innocuous words make up the bulk of Perrine and Kelly’s competition vernacular when they’re shooting down ski slopes at speeds sometimes in excess of 120km/h.

It requires an unfathomable level of trust between athlete and sighted guide, who both are putting their lives in the other’s hands each time they crest the peak of a hill.

Only a few weeks ago, while training in Austria, Perrine nearly cannoned into Kelly after a minor communication mix-up.

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Melissa Perrine nearly had an unfortunate collision wiht her guide. Picture: Jeff Crow

“I nearly killed her in a slalom turn, I basically nearly t-boned her because we were skiing so close together,” Perrine recalled with a chuckle.

And yet despite the very real dangers for Perrine, who competes in the Women’s Vision Impaired – B2 classification – she and Kelly are as close as any two people can be.

“There has to be an insane level of trust. I can really hurt her, as evidence by (the crash in Austria), but we’ve developed that trust,” Perrine said.

“We’ve always been incredibly open and honest with each other. There’s no hard feelings or emotion involved. If Bobbi tells me I’m skiing like crap, or if I call her on something she didn’t do that I needed … I know everything that comes out of her mouth I can trust 110 per cent.”

Aussie flag bearer Perrine is set to compete at her fourth and final Winter Paralympics.

The Welby, NSW native made her debut at Vancouver 2010 and at PyeongChang 2018, broke through to win two bronze medals in the Super-Combined and Slalom, with then-sighted guide, Christian Geiger.

Perrine was introduced to Kelly through Geiger, and the pair began working together in 2019 where, after some early hiccups, they produced a stellar season which included 12 medals on the World Cup circuit and a further four at the 2019 World Para-alpine Skiing Championships.

“Christian knew Bobbi from back in their racing days and he thought that our personalities would mesh really well. He’d been prodding her for a couple of years to get her interested but she was busy with training and coaching and other cool things,” Perrine said.

“After (PyeongChang) Christian approached her again. We ironed out a few kinks and we’ve been having fun from day one.

“We’re completely opposite (personalities) but we work so well together. It’s like skiing with my best friend every day. We’ve built this massive foundation of honest and trust. The bond is special, there’s nothing else like it in sport.”

Melissa Perrine and her guide Christian Geiger after winning a bronze medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Games. Picture: Getty Images

Kelly was as green as they come when she dove head first into Para-skiing with Perrine, and will make her Winter Paralympics debut in Beijing.

“It was a massive learning curve to be honest. Mel is an incredible skier and I didn’t have much knowledge of Para-skiing at the time,” she said.

“I had to put my ego aside and learn as much as I could, and I still am. But ever since I started, I got hooked.

“Skiing with Mel and having that friendship and also getting to share that passion of skiing really hooked me. I just want to do Mel justice. She’s an incredible athlete and I have so much respect for her career.”

Perrine has narrowed her focus to the Slalom and Giant Slalom in Beijing, as she eyes more Paralympic medal success in what is almost assuredly her final Games.

“At this point in time it’s probably going to be my last Games, but I’m very interested in staying involved in winter sports,” she said.

“I’d like to foster the next generation of winter athletes. That’s where I want to be. As a competitor, this is it.

“I live with these guys for six, seven months of the year. I spend more time with this team than my family – I’ve seen them more than I’ve seen my partner in the past six months.

“It’s a closeness you can’t really describe. I don’t think many sports live like we do and train like we do.”

Perrine and Kelly’s Paralympics pursuit begins Friday, March 11, in the Women’s Giant Slalom Vision Impaired.

Inspiring story behind ex-AFL prospect’s Paralympic dream

This time four years ago, Josh Hanlon could never have envisioned a time when he would make his Winter Paralympics debut — why would he?

While Mel Perrine and Simon Patmore were winning medals for Australia in PyeongChang, the Weethalle, NSW local was carving out a life as one of the Riverina Football League’s top talents.

A GWS Giants Academy member throughout his junior years, the 198cm ruck-forward grew up playing alongside the likes of Jacob Hopper, Harry Himmelberg and Harry Perryman.

“As I kid I played Aussie rules all my life … GWS took over most of NSW and I got a shot at being in the Academy at 15-19 (years of age),” Hanlon, 24, said.

“I had a good crack in their program, going to some pre-season camps and playing a couple of games against the (Sydney) Swans. Then I got an apprenticeship in Wagga and that went along with playing some footy at Wagga, in the Riverina League.

Winter Paralympian Josh Hanlon as a GWS Giants rookie. Picture: GWS media.

Josh Hanlon training on the slopes in Beijing.

“I started to play some good footy there, I think I was second in the league (goalkicking) at the time when I got sick halfway through the season.”

July 11, 2018. Less than four months after the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang had ended, Hanlon, then 20, found himself in hospital.

What started as a Streptococcus Group A bacterial infection led to toxic shock, sepsis and necrotizing pneumonia.

A three-month stay in hospital resulted in both of Hanlon’s legs and his right hand being amputated, and 10cm of his small intestine removed.

Josh Hanlon lays a tackle in a game for the GWS academy. Picture: GWS media.

Weeks of rehab and learning to walk on his prosthetics followed, until Hanlon was finally able to walk out of hospital and resume his life, albeit much differently.

“I got out in November (2018) and by Christmas I felt back to normal,” he said.

“It was hard to know that you weren’t ever going to play (Aussie rules) again, or to the potential that I had, but it was just about moving on and finding a new sport that I could be at the top of.

“I had skied three times as a kid. The last time was the week I left school, at the end of 2015, when we caught the last couple of weeks of the season up at Perisher. And then that was it – 2019 I tried skiing again on the sit-ski.

“The first time I tried it I fell in love with it straight away. I didn’t think it would be this quick. It’s been a lot of gym work, as much skiing as possible and here we are (at the Winter Paralympics). It’s kind of crazy.”

Josh Hanlon has enjoyed a stunning rise to reach the Paralympics.

Hanlon’s rise from sit-skiing novice to Paralympian inside three years has been nothing short of remarkable. He arrives in Beijing in the form of his life, following two top-10 finishes in the Slalom and Giant Slalom at the World Cup Series in Sweden in mid-January.

“This being my first international season with the team has been a huge learning curve for me, I’m asking questions every day,” Hanlon said.

“Mitch (Gourley) and Mel have been to four cycles now so they’re always good to ask questions. Sam (Tait) and Pat (Jensen) I’m really close with and I’m forever asking them questions. I’m feeling very comfortable with it all now.

“It was pretty crazy starting the season learning what it was like to be part of an international team, but being a small team (of nine) it works pretty well.”

Hanlon has had to bide his time while Gourley, Jensen and Tait attacked the speed events earlier this week but he now gets to join them on the slopes at Yanqing for the Giant Slalom, which begins on Thursday.

Originally published as Winter Paralympics 2022: Flag bearer Mel Perrine opens up on mix-up with guide and competing at fourth Games