Ski racers learn from the best

International ski teams have returned to Wanaka skifields for their annual off-season training and their presence is giving some of New Zealand's top alpine racers an opportunity to learn from the best.

An investment in new runs and infrastructure at Cardrona Alpine Resort has attracted several top international ski-racing teams, such as the United States, Germany and Norway.

The Austrian alpine ski-racing team has returned to its northern hemisphere summer base of Treble Cone skifield to train, after a break last year.

Cardrona marketing manager Nadia Ellis said several of New Zealand's future winter Olympians had been rubbing shoulders with some of the world's best ski racers during training at the resort.

"They've been lapping up the opportunity to train with these Olympic medal-winning athletes from the United States, Germany, Norway and Russia."

New Zealand members of Cardrona's High Performance Centre team have had training sessions with many of the ski-racing medal winners from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

The training sessions had helped produce some "fantastic" results from the HPC ski race team this season, such as Lucie Tait-Jamieson's wins at the first three FIS events of the New Zealand season, Ms Ellis said.

New Zealand ski racers with the Treble Cone Racing Academy have also benefited from the presence of the Austrian alpine skiers, with Adam Barwood, of Queenstown, claiming several podium finishes during the FIS Wanaka Tech series.

TCRA manager Guenther Birgmann said the cross-over training involving international athletes and Kiwi competitors had also extended to the two groups' coaching staff.