Harley Windsor: Australia’s First Indigenous Winter Olympian

In a twist of fate, eleven years ago, Harley Windsor was travelling through Blacktown, NSW with his mum, when she took a wrong turn, stumbling upon an ice rink. Nine-year old Harley asked his mum if he could have a try.

Twelve months later Harley became the NSW figure skating champion in his age group.

Now, partnered with 17-year old ‘Katia’ Alexandrovskaya, Harley will represent our nation in the pairs event of the figure skating section at Pyeongchang 2018.

Skating together since 2015, Harley and Katia recently won the 2017 Junior World Figure Skating Championship in Taiwan. This followed previous successes at the Junior Grand Prix in the Czech Republic in 2016 and a gold medal at a grand prix event in Estonia the same year.

Harley said he has always dreamed of skating at the Olympics.

‘Making my first Olympic team is huge,’ he said.

‘Now it’s a reality, the emotional roller coaster of it all is very overwhelming. I feel as though I’m helping in taking a big step for Indigenous athletes to move more into winter sports rather than the normal summer sports and hopefully inspire more to follow in my footsteps.’

The Pyeongchang 2018 games commence on 9 February with the opening ceremony. We wish, Harley, Katia and their fellow Olympic team members the best of luck.

*Quotes courtesy of Australian Olympic Committee.