Queenstown’s Winter Games on rise

Much of the winter sports world will be watching New Zealand’s Winter Games when the two-week snow sports festival starts this weekend in Queenstown.

With a total of 920 athletes from 39 countries competing across seven venues in Central Otago, chief executive Arthur Klap said the biennial event had developed into one of the biggest winter events internationally.

‘‘It feel like the games have come of age this time round. We have slowly been building over the years and now we are firmly established as a world class event.’’

Over the next two weeks, those watching events are likely to see athletes who will pick up medals at next year’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, with the calibre of athletes the best the games have seen in its eight-year history.

‘‘These are the national teams. We expect something like 20 athletes competing this week to go on to win medals at the Winter

Olympics,’’ Klap said.

While the 2013 Games recorded around the same athlete numbers as this year, more sports were involved and Klap said this year significant rises have been recorded across individual sports with a major upsurge on the 2015

entries. The biggest reason for the upturn in numbers and calibre was the fact the athletes were looking to qualify for the Olympics, the X Games and the Freeride World Tour events.

This year is different to previous games as the events will be held across seven venues Snowfarm, Treble Cone, Naseby, Coronet Peak, Remarkables, Cardrona and the Queenstown Ice Arena, where a three-test series between Australia and the Ice Blacks will be played for the first time after a four-year hiatus.

Klap said there had been a huge surge in international media interest for the games, which helped attract visitors and spectators to town.

‘‘Definitely the Winter Olympics being in five months time is an absolute factor. Athletes need to compete and get themselves ready to qualify for the Olympics as well.

‘‘We have had feedback that there’s been a national increase of awareness of the Games. It is pretty hard to get that profile in New Zealand with a niche sport like this, especially given it is the weekend of a Bledisloe Cup test in Dunedin.’’

However, Klap was confident that the pull of an event that had so many sports in such a close vicinity would draw crowds for two weeks.

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES Adam Barwood of New Zealand competing in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea, earlier this year.

USA’S Kelly Clark is a world class athlete in her field, she will be competing in the Slopestyle event early next week.