Why one-legged skier Michael Milton is making a Winter Paralympic Games comeback 20 years later

Michael Milton usually goes to bed about 7pm, before an early morning of setting up racecourses on the mountains of Thredbo. But one winter night, he couldn’t sleep.

“You always have your best ideas when you’re going to sleep,” Milton said.

The idea was to try and qualify for his sixth winter Paralympics, 20 years after his last, at the age of 52.

After collecting the most Paralympic medals of any Australian skier – 11 across five Games, including six gold – Milton left the sport in 2006 and competed in para-cycling at the Beijing Summer Games in 2008. In 2006, he broke the world record for the fastest speed by a one-legged skier and, in 2013, for the fastest marathon completed with crutches.

Though he has retired twice from competitive skiing and recovered from his third cancer diagno