Aussie rock drummer finds his rhythm on the slopes

Patrick Jensen craved a rock-star lifestyle as a teenager: the tours, the parties, the adrenaline.

Now 26, the enthusiastic Aussie has achieved all of the above. But instead of wearing leather, he now wears "a lot of spandex".

"A few of my friends are in a really good band and when they're on tour, I'm usually on tour," the drummer-turned-para Alpine skier said.

"We all get back－they've got back from a completely different style of tour－but we all hit the road and go off and do our thing. We all live in close quarters. It's a similar lifestyle. Maybe not as much dancing and drinking as the rock stars, but we still dance."

Jensen will be making his second Paralympic appearance in the men's vision-impaired class at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

He took up skiing eight years ago when his school counselor made the sport a mandatory requirement for his graduation.

"I was forced into it, didn't want to do it," Jensen said. "When I was in school, I was definitely wanting to be a musician. I was playing a lot of gigs at pubs and with my mates, all in bands. At the time, that's what my 18-year-old self thought I was going to do for the rest of my life.

"But my career adviser at school advised me to get a career better suited to me and pushed me into sports. A year later, I was competing for Australia, loving life, and no regrets at all. It all happened so fast, though."

Jensen continued to play occasional concerts until 2019, but once he swapped ski poles for drumsticks, he decided to swap the stage for the slopes.

"I'm not able to practice and play drums while on the road," Jensen said. "It's a very, very, big instrument to lug around when I have 11 sets of skis as well. It became a bit unrealistic. I started playing guitar last year and hopefully I can get decent enough to play some gigs with some friends here and there."

While he has not played any concerts in recent years, Jensen is still making good use of his musical background as he descends the world's toughest Alpine courses.

"There's a rhythm in everything. On a really cool course, like slalom or giant slalom, you can kind of bring it to a beat," Jensen said.

"For slalom, jazz could be interesting, but I don't know if I would move fast enough. I think I'd need some filthy club bangers to get me going for slalom."

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