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Athletes from around the world have arrived at the biggest snow sports event on the planet, as the 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games opens today. The biannual games are held over two weeks in New Zealand's Southern Alps with alpine and freestyle skiing and snowboarding events attracting some of the sports' top athletes.
With the announcement that the games will feature sanctioning from the International Ski Federation (FIS) for both snowboard and freeski events this year, the competition is set to be even better because the FIS will likely be the route through which athletes qualify for an Olympic bid in 2014. The games will also feature the first-ever FIS sanctioned freeski big air event.
The games have long served as a winter-season warm-up for Northern-Hemisphere athletes, many from Colorado, making the journey to New Zealand. In 2009, Vail's Taylor Seaton shocked the planet with a gold-medal performance in the halfpipe. He is on the roster this week with hopes of defending the title, although he acknowledges the filed is a significantly deeper with the FIS sanctioning.
“New Zealand was instrumental in getting freeski halfpipe and ski cross events included in the 2014 Winter Olympics following the FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships in 2010 in Lake Wanaka, which marked the first time freeski and snowboarding had been combined at a world championship level,” according to the games' press office. “Now in another world first, 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games will host a FIS freeski big air event.”
The games feature more than 38 events and involving 1,000 elite athletes from 50 nations.
The freeski field is packed with some of the biggest names in the sport including current FIS World Champion Anna Segal (AUS), World Superpipe Champion Jossi Wellls (NZE) and X Games gold medalist Charles Gagnier (FRA) along with multiple X Games medallist Jen Hudak (Ski Club Vail) on the women's side. David Wise, Taylor Seaton, John Spriggs and Kendall Deighan are among the athletes representing the U.S., the latter three from Colorado.
The snowboard cross event features world No. 1 Alex Pullin from Australia, while the ski cross field includes world No. 3 Fanny Smith (SUI) and Olympians Scott Kneller (USA) and Mitchey Greig (NZE).
The stakes in the cross country events are now higher with the entry of the Russian team, which features multiple Olympic medalists Alexander Panzhinskiy, Alexey Petukhov and Nikita Kriukov. They join Polish Olympic gold medalist Justyna Kowalcyzk in what should be an exciting opening competition in Lake Wanaka today.
— The 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games press office contributed to this report.
With the announcement that the games will feature sanctioning from the International Ski Federation (FIS) for both snowboard and freeski events this year, the competition is set to be even better because the FIS will likely be the route through which athletes qualify for an Olympic bid in 2014. The games will also feature the first-ever FIS sanctioned freeski big air event.
The games have long served as a winter-season warm-up for Northern-Hemisphere athletes, many from Colorado, making the journey to New Zealand. In 2009, Vail's Taylor Seaton shocked the planet with a gold-medal performance in the halfpipe. He is on the roster this week with hopes of defending the title, although he acknowledges the filed is a significantly deeper with the FIS sanctioning.
“New Zealand was instrumental in getting freeski halfpipe and ski cross events included in the 2014 Winter Olympics following the FIS Snowboard & Freestyle Junior World Championships in 2010 in Lake Wanaka, which marked the first time freeski and snowboarding had been combined at a world championship level,” according to the games' press office. “Now in another world first, 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games will host a FIS freeski big air event.”
The games feature more than 38 events and involving 1,000 elite athletes from 50 nations.
The freeski field is packed with some of the biggest names in the sport including current FIS World Champion Anna Segal (AUS), World Superpipe Champion Jossi Wellls (NZE) and X Games gold medalist Charles Gagnier (FRA) along with multiple X Games medallist Jen Hudak (Ski Club Vail) on the women's side. David Wise, Taylor Seaton, John Spriggs and Kendall Deighan are among the athletes representing the U.S., the latter three from Colorado.
The snowboard cross event features world No. 1 Alex Pullin from Australia, while the ski cross field includes world No. 3 Fanny Smith (SUI) and Olympians Scott Kneller (USA) and Mitchey Greig (NZE).
The stakes in the cross country events are now higher with the entry of the Russian team, which features multiple Olympic medalists Alexander Panzhinskiy, Alexey Petukhov and Nikita Kriukov. They join Polish Olympic gold medalist Justyna Kowalcyzk in what should be an exciting opening competition in Lake Wanaka today.
— The 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games press office contributed to this report.
