New Zealand team members
Iain Roberts (30)
Skeleton racer
Lives: Edinburgh, Scotland (born England, dual New
Zealand-British citizen).
Event: Skeleton took its name from the first, small
metal sleds athletes used in Switzerland in the late 1800s,
which looked a bit like a skeleton.
Today's sleds are made of fibreglass and metal.
Background: Roberts has been on the New Zealand team
since 2004 and is competing at his first Winter Olympics.
He is ranked 44th on the world cup circuit.
He competed at the 2008 and 2009 world championships.
At the recent St Moritz, Konigssee and Igls world cups he was
21st, 18th and 25th respectively.
Chances: Skeleton medals are measured in 100ths of a
second and races are won by a strong push and precision
driving.
Roberts earned his spot on the team at Konigssee, where he
achieved his best world cup result and equalled the 4.98sec
push time of his ninth-placed team-mate, Ben Sandford.
Olympic medal prospects Martins Dukurs (Latvia), Frank Rommel
(Germany) and Jon Montgomery (Canada) were first, third and
sixth respectively at Konigssee.
Sandford finished that race between 0.41sec and 0.61sec
behind Dukurs in both his runs, while Roberts was just
slightly more than a second off the pace in both runs.
Dukar's total combined time was 1min 35:29 sec while
Sandford's and Roberts' combined times were 1min 36.31sec and
1min 37.46sec respectively.
Race day: February 18 (heats) and February 19
(finals).
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