VESPA’s 5 TRAJECTORIES OF ENDEAVOUR

Determination
  • Biathlon is recognised as one of the most difficult sports to master
  • Pushing your body around a highly technical Nordic skiing course then slow down, prepare your position and rifle, and engage five very small targets; all while lowering your heart rate enough to be able to shoot accurately – but not so much that you’re going to cramp up horribly on the next circuit.
Adaptability
  • Potential biathletes can attend training in 6 states and territories as suits their ability, and without boundaries to improving technique and proficiency.
  • We have affiliate Coaches ready to teach and train adaptive and non-adaptive biathletes, who meet the VESPA criteria, across most of Australia.
  • If you are a veteran of a military campaign or operation, are – or have been – a front line First Responder, or are a close family member of the above, then you meet the criteria that allows our members to learn biathlon and undertake wellbeing sessions in a veteran friendly and trauma-informed setting.
Collaboration

VESPA was engaged by the Australian Biathlon Association (Now Biathlon Australia) to use Our connections with the ADF, Veterans, Emergency Services personnel and peri-para contacts, to form an Australian adaptive Biathlon team.
VESPA also has an established MOU with the University of South Australia’s Wellbeing Veterans & Emergency Services (WAVES) program. This not only gives our athletes access to the full suite of training facilities to program members, it also provides access to Uni SA’s Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy departments.
Support from MESHA in provision of a Q Account provides security of donations and transparency in spending.

Our strong connections to Invictus Australia, the ADF’s Adaptive Sports Program, ADF Biathlon, and WAVES, along with our insistence on strong governance means that biathletes who work with us will be have peace of mind that we deliver not only on highest quality training but offer a safe space, where veterans of campaigns and First Responders, can learn about how our experiences have shaped our values, our identity, and our mind.

Engagement
  • VESPA are engaging industry and philanthropical organisations, in order to fund improved training equipment, coaching and the availability of camps, both on roller-skis and in Australian snow-fields and overseas.
  • We are continually looking for prospective para- or wellbeing biathletes, while the 2025 Canada Invictus Games means opportunity to expand our relationship with Invictus Australia and the ADF Adaptive Sports Program.
Mastery

While VESPA was tasked by the ABA in 2019 to recruit a national paralympic biathlon team for the 2026 Paralympics in Isolaccio, Italy (which appears very close to fruition in late 2024, with all Australia’s national ParaNordic team heavily involved in VESPA’s development), the organisation was conceived to deliver a wellbeing project to members looking for a sport to master that is seriously challenging, and/or for those that miss military-style activities and camaraderie – or those who just enjoy thrashing themselves physically. Mastery of biathlon techniques are the objective but mastery of ourselves is the prize.