Kiwis aim to heat up Winter Olympics

While most of us have been finding way to cool down over summer, our Winter Olympians are only just heating up.

Christchurch pair Carlos Garcia Knight and Jamie Prebble, along with 19 other Kiwi medal hopefuls, have arrived in PyeongChang, South Korea, for the world’s biggest snow sports event.

Garcia Knight kicks off the Kiwi effort tomorrow along with Tiarn Collins in the men’s snowboard slopestyle event – both serious contenders for New Zealand’s second ever Winter Olympics medal.

It was 25 years ago when alpine skier and Christchurch woman Annelise Coberger claimed a silver in the alpine skiing slalom at the

1992 Games in Albertville, France. Garcia Knight began snowboarding at Mt Hutt at the age of

11, but quickly emerged as an international talent by winning a silver medal in slopestyle at the FIS Snowboard junior world championships and claiming fourth place at the slopestyle World Cup. In September, he grabbed his first World Cup medal with a bronze at the 2017 Winter Games NZ.

Fellow Christchurch athlete and former Christchurch Boys’ High School student Prebble will compete in the ski cross race on February 21.

In doing so Prebble becomes the first ski-cross racer to compete in the heart-skipping discipline as a Kiwi Olympian.

The 26-year-old will reach speeds of up to 80kmh and has been in stellar form for the past two seasons leading in to his first Winter Olympic Games. His 2017 Northern Hemisphere season ended on a high when he took a silver medal finish at the World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Prebble is sure the games will be more intense than what he has already experienced as a snowsports athlete, but believes he has

done the preparation in the Northern Hemisphere circuit.

‘‘I am expecting it to be a different beast than any other event. I think everyone goes into the games wanting to win so to say that is my goal is a bit generic.

‘‘[It’s my] first Olympics and I am pumped for it. Ever since my childhood I wanted to compete at the Olympics, so to have it come true after such a long journey of hard work is a lifetime dream turning into reality. I can’t wait to represent New Zealand and make the country proud.’’

South Korea will host the event which runs until February 25, with over 3000 athletes from 95 nations competing across seven sports, 15 disciplines and 102 events.

With 21 athletes competing under the New Zealand flag, this is the country’s biggest Winter Olympics contingent. The previous largest was 18 at Torino, Italy, in 2006.

Garcia Knight’s slopestyle qualification round begins tomorrow at 2pm (NZT).