Shannon Dallas

Born on 16 August 1977,[1] Dallas was a carpenter prior to an accident in 2000 where he broke his back[2] after falling through a roof.[3] He also used to be a surfie.[2] When he was young, he moved around a lot.[4] After finishing his HSC, he moved to Toongabbie where he lived with a friend in a loungeroom.[4] Dallas is from Terrigal,[5] New South Wales.[2] He moved there in around 2003.[4]

Dallas does work as a public speaker.[3][6][7] In 2010, he spoke at the Concord Library about his experiences with disability sport.[8] That same year, he also spoke at Delfin Lend Lease about workplace safety.[3]

In 2009 and 2010, Dallas worked in wheelchair basketball development on New South Wales's central coast. He also worked as a newspaper columnist.[6] In 2010, he played wheelchair basketball for the Sydney University Wheelkings.[6] He had four relationships in four years in the lead up to the 2010 Winter Paralympics. The demands of high level skiing was a factor in the relationships not working.[7] In 2009, he had a shoulder reconstruction,[9][10] and other rehabilitation at the Mount Wilga Rehabilitation Hospital.[6] He also dealt with necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating bug, that sidelined him for seven months.[2][10] The flesh-eating bug treatment involved a skin graft.[2]

Dallas was featured on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's X Paralympic Games in March 2010.[11]

Dallas is a sit-skier.[7][10] When skiing, he can go 100 kilometres (62 mi) an hour.[2] He receives support from the New South Wales Institute of Sport,[6][12] the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Government Sports Training Grants program.[12] In 2003, he competed at the Hartford Ski Spectacular.[13] During the 2005/2006 World Cup skiing season, he had a second and third place finish in the giant slalom events.[14]

Shannon Dallas competing in the slalom event at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games.

Dallas competed at the 2006 Winter Paralympics,[4] where he was the team captain. Coming into the Games, he was ranked in the top five in the world in the downhill and super-G.[14] While in Turin, his grandmother died.[9] He finished ninth in the super-G and crashed in the downhill. Following his first run in the giant slalom, he was 34th with a time of 1:07.90. He climbed back to finish 18th overall in the giant slalom following his second run which had a time of 57.32 seconds. He withdrew from the Games before the slalom event, his last scheduled one.[14]

In 2007, Dallas won a World Cup.[8] In 2009, he won the World Championships for the super-G.[2] He had a high speed crash at the 2009 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships in Korea in the downhill event, which resulted in severe injuries that doctors thought might end his career.[2][6][15]

Dallas was officially named to the Australian 2010 Winter Paralympics team in November 2009.[16] A ceremony was held in Canberra with Australian Paralympic Committee president Greg Hartung and Minister for Sport Kate Ellis making the announcement.[17] He and the rest of Australia's para-alpine team arrived in the Paralympic village on 9 March 2010.[18] At the Games, he competed in the super-G event, when he was the super-G world champion at the time.[10] In the super-G, he finished 12th.[10] He also competed in the super combined,[10] downhill and giant slalom events.[2] He did not place in the super combined event as he failed to finish his second run[5] because he crashed.[19][20][21] He had been sitting in the sixth spot after his first run and kept sixth spot after his second run.[9] He finished 11th in the super-G.[22] He finished ninth in the super combined.[22] He did not finish in the slalom.[22] He overskied the giant slalom and finished sixth.[23] The giant slalom course was difficult, and Dallas was one of only 30 out of 54 skiers to finish the course.[24] Following the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, Dallas took a break from the sport,[7] and had originally planned as a retirement that he announced before the 2010 Games.[25]