Who participates in the Get Fit to Ski program?

The Get Fit to Ski program, run by the Australian Physiotherapy Association, is a pre-season conditioning program designed for, and marketed to, alpine sports participants. This paper describes the characteristics of Get Fit to Ski program participants in Melbourne during 1997. All participants were surveyed prior to commencement of the program to determine their demographics, skiing experience, recent injury history, self-perceived fitness level and expectations of the program. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to analyse the data. Mostly, participants are experienced skiers from a professional background who attend the program to improve their fitness and recovery for subsequent days of skiing. Understanding the characteristics of program participants helps with marketing and program development which could potentially result in a greater number of satisfied participants.