Michael Milton Travels from Canberra, ACT

Skier, cyclist, trekker, triathlete, world and Australian record holder, Paralympian, Olympian....

Michael Milton is one of Australia's best-known athletes. His four-gold-medal haul at the Salt Lake Winter Paralympic Games endeared him to a sport-loving nation and earned him the title of Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.

In April 2003 Michael tried something new: speed skiing, the drag racing of alpine sport. On the steepest slope in the world he clocked over 193km/hr, smashing a 16-year-old world record and becoming the fastest skier with a disability.

Every year after that he bettered his own world record until, in April 2006, he clocked a staggering 213.65km/hr to also become the fastest Australian skier ever.

A month earlier at the 2006 Winter Paralympic Games (in his fifth Paralympic Games) Michael's ski racing career came to an end. Under a new, tougher classification system, he won a silver medal in the Downhill, achieving his goal to "...win a medal, any colour." His ski racing medal count stands at eleven Paralympic medals (six gold) and eleven World Championships medals (six gold).

He then pursued a new sport: cycling. After six months of intense training, he not only won a gold medal in the 3000m Individual Pursuit at the Australian Track Cycling Championships in February 2007 but also broke the Australian record.

His dream to make the Australian team and compete at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games was sidelined when he was diagnosed with Oesophagael Cancer in July 2007. He then made an amazing comeback from this serious illness to record times at the 2008 Australian Track Cycling Championships comparable to his results in the same events 12 months before.

In June 2008 Michael was named as one of 18 athletes in the Paralympic Cycling Team to compete in Beijing. His sixth Paralympic Games and his first as a summer athlete, he arrived in Beijing less than 12 months since chemotherapy radiotherapy and major surgery. In many ways, he'd already won.

Michael competed in three events - the 1km Time Trial and the 300m Individual Pursuit on the track and the 60.5km Road Race. Read more about his races and how he feels about his performances on his Beijing Blog.

Michael has raced in the Mark Webber Challenge, a five-day adventure race in Tasmania and in the 293km long Coast to Coast Kokoda Challenge. He has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and walked Kokoda twice.

His latest passions include mountain biking and triathlons. He has competed in two World Paratriathlon Championships in 2012 in Auckland, New Zealand and in 2011 in Beijing where he finished fourth.

Most recently, Michael completed his first ever marathon. Aiming to break the existing Guinness World Record for Fastest Marathon on Crutches (one leg) which stood at 6 hours, 42:47, Michael smashed it in a time of 5 hours, 23:50. The record is yet to be ratified.

Michael's story is the stuff of legends, his determination to win something to which we all aspire. He talks about facing his own mortality, prioritising his life, dealing with the cancer.