Five Winter Paralympics under his belt, with two gold and three bronze medals to his name make Adam one of the New Zealand’s most successful and long standing skiers.
If that track record is not impressive enough, then his achievements off the slopes are equally remarkable.
He currently sits on six different working groups and committees including chair of FIS Para Alpine Focus Group, selector for the Hyundai Pinnacle Programme, Drug Free Sport, New Zealand’s athlete commission, and the Adaptive Snow Sports committee.
This experience and the support of Prime Minister’s Scholarships enabled Adam to undertake an individualised 12 month study programme based on his transferrable skills.
“Rather than starting a degree from scratch and doing three to four years study, I was able to benefit from a fast-track study programme that culminated in receiving a Bachelor of Applied Management, majoring in Sport Management.”
Adam, who is now in his 20th year as an athlete in the high performance system, has used his PMs Scholarship as an opportunity to solidify his position as an athlete and use his
lifelong learnings to support his time spent on the management side of sport.
Adam largely credits the support of HPSNZ Snow Sport Performance Life Coach, Carol Goodlass, as key to his academic success.
“Carol is quite simply a legend and helped me make the most of the fast-track qualification opportunity. This has been important to support the business and sport management papers I had done through earlier PMs Scholarships.”
“The PM’s Scholarships have become more accessible over the years and more available for any kind of course, not just uni degrees, as long as you put a good case forward.”
Adam’s ambitions for the future don’t end with his achievements on and off the slopes to date.
He is targeting the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milano Cortina and, on the work front, is looking to undertake a course in 2024 through the Institute of Directors to provide further skills in governance, an area he has gained interest in throughout his career.
Adam says high performance athletes in New Zealand are very lucky. “The support we receive from HPSNZ as high performance athletes and as newly-retired Olympians and Paralympians is amazing. It allows us to strike an important balance between our goals as an athlete and the education we need for the future.
“I believe New Zealand punches well above its weight in the support provided to high performance athletes.”
