Back to school for ski star
At the same time the All Blacks were losing the Rugby World Cup semifinal, a Queenstown teenager was in Austria collecting a giant slalom world cup title.
Alice Robinson said she did think about the rugby.
‘‘I checked after my first run but stopped watching when I saw the score,’’ she said.
Maybe it was the motivation the 17-year-old needed to edge Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin to win the World Cup season-opening giant slalom.
Standing on the podium, aware that she was the first New Zealand woman to win a World Cup giant slalom, was ‘‘pretty cool’’, she said.
But she was quick to race home for her final three days as a year 13 student at Wakatipu High School. The last few days of school included a barbecue and school prizegiving, she said.
‘‘It’s always nice coming home. I think I’ll miss it next year – coming back to school and seeing all my mates.’’
Unlike many of her friends, she is not staying for exams, focusing only on finishing her last two assignments to obtain her level two NCEA University Entrance based on internal assessments.
Instead, she is heading to Colorado in the United States to prepare for her next World Cup event, one of eight remaining for the season. She is also attempting five events in the speedier, ‘‘more dangerous’’ super giant slalom.
Sponsorship and pay cheques have followed her recent successes.
Last year, aged 16, she became the youngest athlete to represent New Zealand at any Olympics games, when she competed at PyeongChang, South Korea.
In February she won the Alpine World junior ski championships in Val di Fassa, Italy. Now ski racing is her job.
‘‘I don’t really think of it as a job because I enjoy it so much. It’s a fun journey for me.’’
She is looking forward to having a year where she doesn’t have to divide her time between study and racing commitments. Some days at home she spends up to five hours working on strengthening and conditioning.
‘‘Next year it will be even more busy with physio and media commitments so I’ll see how that goes without studying.’’
‘‘I don’t really think of it as a job because I enjoy it so much. It’s a fun journey for me.’’ Skier Alice Robinson