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FEATURE SPORT
Among New Zealand’s medal prospects at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is 20-year-old Queenstown ski racer Alice Robinson. By Gavin Bertram.
S N OW Q U E E N Winter Olympic skier Alice Robinson
Alice Robinson in the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Women's Grand Slalom in March this year. (Christoph Pallot/Agence Zoom/ Getty images)
tanding at the brink, engulfed by the mountain and the weight of expectation, it’s easy to surrender to doubt. Contemplating a vertical drop of around 400m, with more than 50 gates to negotiate, at average speeds of 80kmh… the giant slalom event is a challenge for both body and mind. For New Zealand Winter Olympian Alice Robinson, it’s still a daunting prospect even after winning the World Junior Championship in 2019, and three wins on the World Cup circuit. “You have to be super confident to succeed in this sport, when you’ve got a minute to give it everything you have down these mountains,” she says. “At the start gate, I think about tactical and technical cues, and just hype myself up and assert my confidence in myself.” ROBINSON’S first experience on the snow came when she was just three, on a New Zealand holiday when her family still lived in Sydney. The following year they moved to Queenstown, and from then on the mountains loomed large. She virtually grew up on Coronet Peak, being enrolled in the ski school holiday programme there from the age of four or five. “I definitely would have had quite a different life if we didn’t move here,” Robinson reflects. “I always loved being out there. And I started racing at eight with the local ski team. We had a great group of kids, and we were all just having the best time and racing.”
