Bart Bunting

Bunting was born on 19 July 1976,[1] and has been blind since birth.[2] Bunting attended the secondary school Oakhill College.[3] He has a degree in computer science from the University of Technology, Sydney.[4][5] He was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's X Paralympic Games in March 2010.[2] In 2022, Bunting was living in the New South Wales north coast town of Nimbin with his wife and two children. He works in information technology remotely.[6]

Bunting skied with his guide Nathan Chivers, whom he has known since high school.[4][7] He began skiing in 1998 at a "tryout camp" for people with disabilities. He found it difficult at first, but in 2000, he won a gold medal in the downhill and giant slalom at the IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Anzère, Switzerland.[7] From 2001 to 2003 and in 2009, he had an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship for alpine skiing.[8]

Bunting won two gold medals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games in the downhill B1–3 and super-G B1–3 events, and a silver medal in the giant slalom B1–2 event.[9] Due to these achievements, he carried the Australian flag during the closing ceremony of the Games.[5] Bunting and Chivers retired after 2002 due to Chivers breaking a leg in a motorbike accident.[10] He returned to competition with Chivers in 2009 with the aim of competing at the 2010 Vancouver Games.[10] He competed but did not win any medals at these games[9] with Nathan Chivers as his guide.[11] While he was scheduled to ski in the second run of the giant slalom at the 2010 Games, he withdrew from that competition to focus on the downhill event.[12] He had been in 14th place after his first run.[11] By June 2011, he had retired from elite skiing.[13]