Steven Lee

Steven Lee started skiing at the age of three after his father bought an interest in a ski lodge at Falls Creek. By the time he reached his teens he was impressing Sigi Haberzettle, the trainer who helped shape Ross and Malcolm Milne, some of Australia's finest Alpine Skiers.

Lee raced internationally for the first time in the northern winter of 1977/78 and later came under the guidance of a Swiss coach, Jan Tischhauser, engaged by the Australian Ski Federation to take over the Australian team.

By 1984 when he was chosen for the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Tischauser was labelling him the best skier to come out of Australia since the Milne brothers. He was also voted "rookie of the year" by European sportswrites.

After finishing 19th in the Downhill at Sarajevo, Lee won a World Cup race in Furano, Japan in 1985, becoming only the second Australian (after Milne) to record such a triumph. That year he also won the Canadian title, which he won again in the lead-up to the 1988 Calgary Olympics. In Calgary, he finished 22nd of 51 starters in the Downhill and 36 from 117 in the Giant Slalom.

At his third and final Olympics in Albertville 1992, Lee recorded a best result of 19th in the Super Combined as well as 30th in the Super-G and 36th in Downhill.

Taken from Harry Gordon’s ‘Australia and the Olympic Games’