My name is Seve de Campo and I am a 26 year old Australian Olympian from Melbourne, currently training towards the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy. I am a cross country skier which is one of the six founding sports of the Winter Olympics (dating back to 1924). It's an endurance winter sport with athletes compared to top level tour de france cyclists, triathletes and endurance runners. I've trained between 800-1000 hours for the past six years and after having finished my engineering degree from the Australian National University in Canberra, I have been based in Norway to push further my limits on skis. It's been a great and challenging journey so far!

I am writing to you on the Australian Sports Foundation page, to ask for your support in my journey towards the 2026 Olympic Games. Australia has traditionally been a small winter sports nation particularly in Cross Country Skiing as individual athlete development in this sport takes years with access to world class knowledge and services in order to challenge the best nations and contend for medals. 

To paint a picture, on World Cup we come up against large ski nations with wax trucks the size of your first home, carrying skis for each athlete that are tested and selected for them by a support crew triple the size or ours. The Norwegian wax truck has its own grinding system to produce skis fit for varying snow conditions across each race venue. I don't think about this because it is a factor out of my control. I make sure I can do everything I can every time I prepare for a World Cup race weekend both as a good team member and as a competitor on the start line, it's no surprise that myself and our team AUS athletes often do just as well or beat these big nation athletes.

What’s become crystal clear to me is that I have to take full ownership of my ski career, treating it like a high performance startup. I can’t rely on anything being handed to me; nothing’s guaranteed. That means outworking the competition, creating my own opportunities, and being proactive in every area, from training and recovery to funding and partnerships. Any support I get, I make sure to squeeze the most out of it, because I know I’ve earned it.

Last season was my best season yet, and it was also a record breaking year for team AUS in cross country skiing. I completed my second World Cup Tour de ski, led the four man relay team out for our best World Championships relay result since 1998 (with my younger brother bringing us home in the anchor leg, let's go Fedele) and ended up 50th in the 50km at World Champs in Trondheim, Norway with 120,000 spectators lining the tracks.

I'm all in for best representing Australia at the Winter Olympics, my goal is to achieve the best cross country skiing mens result at the Olympics being a top 30 place. However, I need your support. Last season was expensive as I raced almost the entire World Cup season in order to qualify quota spots for team AUS. This year of training will be more of the same with training camps, physiology testing equipment fees, sports nutrition and racing travel becoming large expenses.

I am eternally grateful to be able to represent Australia internationally, I want to show that us Aussies have more fight than ever and continue being the underdog that punches above its weight. I also want to show that up and coming aussie cross country skiers are more supported and respected and I want to give back to the communities that gave me these opportunities.

I do an individual sport but it only works with a strong team around me. I'd love you to be a part of mine!