High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) has announced an investment of $306,000 for the benefit of alpine and park and pipe athletes, as part of a programme of strategic investment in training facilities for New Zealand’s snow sports athletes.

The money will support the build of an Olympic Winter Games quality halfpipe alongside the big air and slopestyle facilities at Cardrona Alpine Resort; dedicated speed training lanes at NZSki Resorts for Alice Robinson (Queenstown) and the Para Alpine Athletes.

The money will also pay for an injection bar to prepare injected slopes that will replicate the hard and icy conditions found at World Cup and Olympic level alpine and para alpine events. 

“It is important that New Zealand athletes have world-class training facilities, and we are pleased to be able to support Snow Sports New Zealand in continuing to improve the training environment in and around Wanaka,” HPSNZ chief executive Raelene Castle said.

“This is one of many ways we are supporting the athletes in their preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and, as we have seen over recent months, they are on track for something very special.”

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (pictured) and Nico Porteous became New Zealand’s youngest Olympic medallists at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games. PHOTO: Red Bull

Snow Sports New Zealand CEO and High Performance Director Nic Cavanagh said the organisation is grateful for the support of HPSNZ.

“Our core investments and initiatives, including the landing bags invested in previously, played an important role in our success at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games,” he said.

“This is a really exciting time for snow sports in New Zealand, with a team of talented young athletes proving themselves time and time again on some of the biggest snow sport stages in the world. The ability to create a world-class training environment and being able to replicate the conditions that our athletes will compete in at the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games provides us with a real competitive advantage.”

This investment followed the successful PyeongChang Winter Games in 2018 where the New Zealand team won two bronze medals (Wanaka’s Nico Porteous and Zoi Sadowski-Synott, both aged 16, became New Zealand’s youngest Olympic medallists) and a further three medals at the Paralympic Winter Games.

The programme is in the strongest position it has ever been in in the lead up to an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in terms of medal potential, HPSNZ said in a statement. 

The $306,000 is the latest in a programme of strategic facilities investment to support the growth and success of the programme, including:

• $500,000 in 2017 to install landing bags at Cardrona to enable athletes to practice and perfect jumps with reduced risk of injury.
• $407,000 in July 2020 to assist with the delivery of domestic training facilities. This investment was mainly spent at Cardrona to support park and pipe facilities (Slopestyle and Halfpipe).
• $600,000 in October 2020 for the development of a year-round dry slope training environment for targeted Beijing 2022 park and pipe athletes and the development athletes preparing for pinnacle events beyond Beijing leading up to and including Milan 2026. 

In addition, HPSNZ has invested more than $8M into Snow Sports NZ’s high performance programme over the Beijing Olympic Quadrennial.