Di Piazza, Adrian

BORN ON JUNE 2ND, 1962 in Sydney Australia, he is the brother of former national ice hockey team player, Carl, and studied at St Patrick's College in Strathfield then UTS, the University of Technology in Sydney. He first played organised hockey in the local Sydney leagues, joined the Macquarie Bears, and won a Goodall Cup in Perth in 1985 representing New South Wales. "Rag tag team that literally assembled on the plane trip over," he confided. "But we ended up winning." Captained by Howie Jones, with Eddie Moldenhauer in net, and Garry Doré, Craig Hutchinson, Francois Nila, Jeff Taylor, Chris Taylor, Ron Mann, Alrik Forbes and Scott McEwin. You know — rag tag.

"I love all winter sports," he continued. "Dad had me on skis when I was 5. I also did figure skating as a kid. I remember skating at the old rink in St Kilda I think it was. Also skated at the old rink in Homebush and I remember playing ice hockey games at Prince Alfred Park and Narrabeen. All gone now. I've got some really old pics of skaters on a frozen pond in tassie, with an old gramophone on a box in the middle"".

But the sport he excelled in was even more unusual than any of that. He was the Australian Bobsleigh Pilot for seven years and founded the original 1985 Bobsleigh Federation in Australia. He was pilot and manager of the Australian team in the Fosters Bobsleigh World Cup Series in the late-1980s. He competed in the Winter Olympics held in Calgary in 1988, the first time Australia competed in the event with two 2-Man teams and one 4-Man team. He represented Australia in the FIBT World Championships at St Moritz in Switzerland in 1990.

In Calgary, he was pilot of AUS-1 the 2-Man sled with Simon Dodd that finished 26th out of 41 sleds, while Angus Stuart and Martin Harland competed in the AUS-2 2-Man sled, finishing 23rd. He also piloted the 4-Man sled, with a crew of Harland, Dodd and Stephen Craig. They finished 23rd from 26 sleds. 

Director of Development at Sliding Sports Australia, the umbrella organisation for bobsleigh and skeleton, he now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.