Four years after the death of his brother Ross Milne during the 1964 Winter Olympics , Milne himself made his Olympic debut in Grenoble in 1968 . In downhill skiing, the 19-year-old finished 19th out of 86 starters. That was by far the best result that an Australian had achieved in the history of alpine competitions at the Winter Olympics.
In December 1969, Milne won the Val-d'Isère World Cup downhill run . This made Milne the first Australian ski racer to achieve such success. Three months later he won the bronze medal in the downhill at the World Championships in Val Gardena .
Milne joined the French national ski team for training. Between 1970 and 1972 he placed in the top ten of five World Cup runs and was considered a favorite for the Winter Olympics in Sapporo . Shortly before the start of the games, however, he sustained a cartilage injury in his left knee. Milne started anyway. With what he said was “the worst performance of his life”, he landed far behind.
After the Olympic Games, he switched to the professional ski circuit, joined a team run by Jean-Claude Killy and mostly competed in parallel races.
Before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Milne was invited to the Olympic torch to carry through his hometown Myrtleford, where he lives with his wife Sherry and his family. In 2004 he was made an honorary member of the Australian Ski & Snowboard Australia Ski Association . The association recognized Milne's contribution to the development of winter sports in Australia.
Australia
