9 July 2008
immediate release
Paralympic skier Adam Halll joins Pinnacle
Paralympic alpine ski racer Adam Hall is the latest international athlete to join Hyundai’s respected Pinnacle mentor
programme.
The 20-year-old from Dunedin is based at Wanaka and USA as a fulltime sportsperson.
Currently ranked number two in the world in Paralympic Slalom, Adam last month was named NZ Snowsports overall Skier of
the Year (equal with Jossi Wells) and also NZ Snowsports Disabled Skier of the Year.
He joins the Pinnacle programme to work towards a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, Canada.
Adam was born with spina bifida. In many cases that means life in a wheelchair but Adam is mobile, able to walk, drive
and ski standing.
Pinnacle is a nationwide organisation, backed by the Hyundai motor vehicle network, which provides young athletes with a
range of professional and personal skills to help them reach world-best status.
Building on the athlete’s physical conditioning and their technical training in their sport, Pinnacle mentors a range of
skills outside the field of competition, which are typically the difference between success and failure at the highest
level.
The programme is based on 12 Pillars, covering everything from media and sponsors to mental motivation, focus and the
price of fame.
Pinnacle considers these to be skills essential as athletes take the step to true professionalism, and which conversely
have often been the undoing of competitors as off-field issues impact on their performance.
“I expect the skills I learn in Pinnacle to help me take the step up to world champion level,” commented Adam Hall.
“I have read what the other Pinnacle athletes say about their mentoring and I know it will help me become a true sports
professional.”
Adam becomes the seventh Pinnacle athlete, joining triathlete Debbie Tanner and rower Storm Uru as current athletes in
the programme.
Tanner and Uru are members of the NZ team for the Beijing Olympics, along with Pinnacle graduates Moss Burmester
(swimming) and Andrew Murdoch (sailing).
Another Pinnacle graduate Kate McIlroy, steeplechase runner from Wellington, was unable to make the Olympic team because
of injury. A further graduate Andrea Fountain from Auckland competes on the world wakeboarding circuit.
Adam Hall has been a member of the New Zealand Disabled Ski Team since 2005 and was a member of the New Zealand
Paralympic Ski Team at the 2006 Torino Paralympics, Italy. He scored seven consecutive gold medals in his World Series
2007/08 and is current NZ and Australian champion.
He is studying for an agri-business diploma, by correspondence.
ends