Kiwi claims ski cross medal
Jamie Prebble has a Winter Olympics medal in his sights after claiming New Zealand’s first ski cross medal in Spain.
Ranked 16th in the world, Prebble from Canterbury, exceeded his own expectations at the freestyle ski and snowboard world championships in Sierra Nevada earlier this month, up against 48 other competitors.
Prebble is the first New Zealand male to win a world championship medal in an able-bodied snowsport event.
‘‘I was happy with silver, it exceeded my expectations,’’ he said. ‘‘It was amazing. I was close though, I was right there for the gold. I did win the start and the first, but got passed, then came back.’’
It was a fitting finish to Prebble’s long season after finishing fifth at the world cup in Switzerland and 12th in Canada at another world meet.
While this has been a dream season for the 25-year-old, the biggest pay-off is yet to come. His 2016/17 efforts will mean Prebble is almost certain to compete at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Korea.
‘‘The aim is a medal, New Zealand have never won a male medal. [The Olympics] have always been the goal, it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s cool to kind of nearly be there.’’
Skier Annalise Coberger is the only New Zealander to win a Winter Olympic medal, claiming a slalom silver in 1992.
Ski cross is ‘‘basically BMX on the snow’’. Four skiers charge down a course that has jumps, corners and reach speeds up to 100kph before crossing the finishing line.
‘‘It is dangerous and I’ve had a few injuries to shoulder, thumb. It’s definitely a dangerous sport because you are so close to each other, you’re going over massive jumps and some of those are 60m.’’
Prebble qualified in 13th spot before winning his semifinal. After leading early in the final, Sweden’s Victor Oehling Norberg pipped him near the end.
Prebble was introduced to skiing at the age of four, training at Mt Hutt with his two brothers.
‘‘Our family was drawn to the mountains and the snow, my passion for skiing grew and I have never looked back.
‘‘After a successful alpine career, at the age of 21 I decided to switch codes to the sport of ski cross.’’ His supportive family go beyond just introducing Prebble to the sport of his dreams, his brother Nick is actually his coach.
‘‘There’s a lot of late night emailing and skyping when I’m overseas. I’ll be uploading all the videos for him to view, its a very technical sport. It combines all different elements, there are corners, there are rollers, and then obviously you’re racing each other head to head.’’
Prebble hopes he will get some extra funding now he has proved himself on the world stage allowing him to get on more a level playing field with his European competition.
‘‘It’s massive over there they’ve got massive teams and fundings – all their competitors get given Audis to drive around in. Whereas me, I’m just a battler.’’
Prebble has struggled with training as there is no specified ski cross course in New Zealand. .