Nationality Australia Name Melissa Perrine Disability class B2 | Sport Para-alpine skiing Country Australia | |
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Born 21 February 1988 (age 36) ( 1988-02-21 ) Nowra, New South Wales Event(s) Downhill
Super-G
Giant Slalom
Slalom
Super Combined Paralympic finals 2010 Winter Paralympics, 2014 Winter Paralympics | ||
Believe - Melissa Perrine, Para-alpine Skiing
Melissa Perrine (born 21 February 1988) is a B2 classified visually impaired Para-alpine skier from Australia. Since 2009, she has used Andrew Bor as her sighted guide. She has competed at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver and 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi in the downhill, super-G, super combined, slalom and giant slalom events, but did not medal. At the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, she won three gold, one silver and one bronze medals.
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Personal
Melissa Perrine was born in Nowra, New South Wales, on 21 February 1988. In 2007, the Wingecarribee Council area named her their Young Australian of the Year. She was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's X Paralympic Games in March 2010. She has a vision impairment, with her eyesight slowly deteriorating since she was very young. Her vision is limited to blurry shapes and colours. As of 2014, she lives in Welby, New South Wales, and is studying Exercise Science at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney.
Skiing
Perrine is a B2 classified visually impaired skier. She gets direction on the course from a guide who uses a microphone and speakers to communicate with her on the course. She first skied with her sighted guide Andy Bor in 2009 in competition at the IPC North America Cup in Colorado, where she finished second in the super-G. She was officially named to the Australian 2010 Winter Paralympics team in November 2009. Alongside Jessica Gallagher, she was one of two women named to the team. It was only the second time Australia sent women to the Winter Paralympics. A ceremony was held in Canberra with Australian Paralympic Committee president Greg Hartung and Minister for Sport Kate Ellis making the announcement.
At a 2010 World Cup event in Italy ahead of the Paralympics, Perrine fractured the ischium bone in her hip as a result of a fall. She returned to Australia. She was back on the slopes by the end of the 2009/2010 skiing season, and competed in the 2010 World Cup in Aspen, Colorado. She earned a silver medal and a pair of bronze medals at the event.
Perrine and the rest of Australia's Para-alpine team arrived in the Paralympic village on 9 March 2010 for the 2010 Winter Paralympics. While at the Games, she competed in the Downhill, super-G, super combined and giant slalom events. She finished seventh in the visually impaired super-G, approximately 12.54 seconds behind gold medal winning Slovak skier Henrieta Farkasova. She did not finish in the super combined event. Following her first run in the Super G, she was in sixth place, but she did not finish her second run and did not place. She and Bor finished fifth in the 2,139 metres (7,018 ft) downhill.
At the 2011 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships, with Bor as her guide, Perrine won a silver medal in the vision-impaired downhill event, the first one ever earned by an Australian woman at the event. She also earned bronze medals in the women’s vision impaired Super Combined and super-G events. At an August 2011 competition in Mt Hutt, New Zealand, she finished first in the women's super G visually impaired event. At the Winter Games IPC event at Coronet Peak that same month, she and Bor finished first in the women's slalom visually impaired event.
At the 2012 World Cup event in Italy, Perrine finished third in the slalom while skiing with Bor. She won a silver medal in the giant slalom.
At the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Perrine competed in five events. She finished fourth in the women's downhill visually impaired and did not finish in three events. She was disqualified after the slalom leg of the Women's Super Combined for wearing a visor which was taped to her helmet in order to keep rain from her goggles. This was a breach of the IPC Alpine Skiing rules. Jason Hellwig, CEO of the Australian Paralympic Committee described it as "mindnumbingly-dumb mistake" as it was not picked up by relevant team officials. He indicated it was an honest mistake and there was no intention to cheat.
Perrine with her guide Andy Bor won five medals - three gold, one silver and one bronze in Women's Visually Impaired events at the 2015 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Panorama, Canada. Gold medals were won in the Downhill, Super-G, Super Combined, silver medal in Slalom and bronze medal in the Giant Slalom. Perrine became the only Australian female in alpine skiing to finish on the podium in all five events at an IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships.
At the 2017 IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals in PyeongChang, Perrine and her guide Bor won two bronze medals - downhill and giant slalom. Perrine had a limited 2016/17 season due to her university commitments.