Alex Pullin

Australian snowboarder Alex Pullin was a two-time World Champion and competed at three consecutive Olympic Games. Pullin began to compete at a young age, with him soon preferring the snowboard cross discipline, which he considered to be “the most pure form of competition”. In 2010 he was selected to represent Australia at the Vancouver Olympics where he posted the fastest time in the qualification round. In the next round, however, he finished third in his heat and was eliminated from the event.

Pullin made up for his early elimination at the Olympics by winning back-to-back titles in snowboard cross at the World Snowboarding Championships in 2011 and 2013. Heading into the 2014 Sochi Olympics he was now one of the favourites to win gold and was given the honour of being the flagbearer for Australia at the Opening Ceremony. Despite winning his elimination heat, Pullin was knocked out of the competition in the quarter-finals. He continued to train hard and get good results after the Sochi Games, including winning silver at the 2016 Winter X Games and bronze at the 2017 World Championships.

In 2018 Pullin made his third and final appearance at the Olympics when he competed at the Pyeongchang Games. He won his semi-final race, finishing ahead of his teammate and arch-rival Jarryd Hughes. The two of then then competed in the six-man final, which saw Hughes win silver behind Pierre Vaultier of France, but Pullin crashed out and did not finish the course. Due to an ongoing feud between the two Australians, Pullin refused to congratulate Hughes. Pullin retired from the sport in early 2020. Tragically he died just months later after drowning whilst out spearfishing on a reef off the coast of Palm Beach in Queensland. He was 32-years-old.

After he passed away, his wife received IVF treatment using his frozen sperm. His daughter was born 15 months after his tragic death.