Tomorrow (January 20th, 2018) marks the start of the 20 day countdown to the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games.
The New Zealand Team is now at 16 members following the addition of world championship silver medallist speed skaters Peter Michael, Reyon Kay and Shane Dobbin, and the naming of skeleton athlete Rhys Thornbury. They join the existing team of snowboard, freeski and ski cross athletes.
While the ice sport selections have now concluded, there are still a number of snow sport athletes attempting to gain nomination before the end of January.
The current selected athletes and their bios can be viewed at this link.
New Zealand Chef de Mission Pete Wardell says all the PyeongChang Olympic Winter athletes are currently overseas, training to be in peak condition for the Games.
“The athletes are nose down in training. They’re competing, practising and perfecting their runs or working on fitness and race day tactics,” he said.
“Most are training on snow and ice but some have chosen to train indoors to manage the risk of injury. Those ones are spending time in the gym, getting focussed and putting the final touches on their physical shape. Some of our athletes still have high profile competitions underway."
Snowboard slopestyle and big air athlete Carlos Garcia Knight and freeski halfpipe athlete Miguel Porteous will compete in the prestigious Aspen X Games, to be held January 25th-28th.
“This will be my first X Games and it’s an invite only competition so that’s huge for me. I can’t wait to get after it there and test my run ahead of the Olympic Winter Games,” Garcia Knight said.
It follows a positive result for teammate Tiarn Collins who last week won bronze in snowboard slopestyle at the Snowmass World Cup in Aspen.
“It was great to get that result last week and I’m really excited for the Games! Riding has been going really well. I’m currently in Breckenridge, Colorado where I’m working on my runs and technique,” said Collins.
The Speed Skaters, currently based in Calgary, believe they have a real chance of medal success at the Olympic Winter Games. "It's hard to find a group of guys who are more determined and motivated than we are right now," said Olympian and Sochi 2014 flagbearer Shane Dobbin. "We've been training extremely hard and we feel like we are ready for the games and want to be standing on that podium."
To count down to the Olympic Winter Games the NZOC will release a video per day on its social channels featuring team members speaking about the significance of representing New Zealand.
The first of the videos will be released tomorrow.
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