New Zealand Team athletes are putting the final touches on their Winter Olympic routines ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
15 athletes are set to wear the fern for New Zealand at the Games, with the team to compete across freeski, snowboard, alpine, biathlon and ice speedskating. Three of the team are also set to compete in the new discipline of freeski big air, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing.
The New Zealand Team is made up of nine men and six women and will compete in up to 72 competition sessions across the 15 days of Winter Olympic competition. Among the athletes are PyeongChang bronze medallists and reigning X-Games and World Champions Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous.
The youngest member of the team is 16-year-old freeski halfpipe athlete Gustav Legnavsky, who is one of four teenagers in the team. The oldest team member is 32-year-old ice speedskater Peter Michael.
Seven of the athletes are first time Olympians with the others all returning from PyeongChang 2018. The full team can be viewed here. The competition schedule is available here.
The Games are being contested across three villages, with Beijing hosting ice sports and big air, Yanqing hosting alpine and sliding, and Zhangjiakou hosting park, pipe, cross country and biathlon.
New Zealand Team Chef de Mission Marty Toomey says the athletes are looking forward to competing against the best in the world as they strive for Olympic glory.
“These athletes have demonstrated a huge amount of skill and determination to be selected to the New Zealand Team for Beijing,” said Toomey.
“Qualifying for the Winter Olympic Games is a mammoth task at the best of times, to qualify during the pandemic has been even more challenging and we are thrilled that these fifteen athletes will be representing our nation in a just over a week in Beijing.”
Toomey says the team comes into Beijing in amazing form and has potential across the board.
“We saw the amazing impact the Winter Olympic Games can have on our nation when Nico and Zoi won our first medals in 26-years at the last edition of the Games.
“We’re looking forward to again creating history and giving New Zealanders a reason to celebrate over the next few weeks.”
Toomey and the advance team arrived in Beijing late last week and began preparing for the arrival of New Zealand athletes and team support.
“We’re working really hard to ensure that the athletes and wider team have everything they need to perform to their peak,” said Toomey.
“Our job is to get the athletes to the Games and provide an environment which lets them focus on doing what they do best, when we do that, we know good results will follow, whether that’s a podium or a personal best.”
The Beijing 2022 Games will be operating under stringent Covid-19 protocols, with daily testing, social distancing, temperature checks, and a closed loop bubble system in place to limit any spread of Covid-19.
“Our priority is the health and safety of our athletes, and the New Zealand Team will be stringently following all countermeasures to ensure a safe and successful Winter Olympic Games,” said Toomey.
“We’ve been working with athletes and their sports to help them understand all the requirements and are comfortable with what we’ve seen on the ground so far.”
New Zealand Team athletes begin arriving in Beijing on January 29th, with competition getting underway on February 5th.