New Zealander Ben Koons competes in the men's 15km
cross-country skiing on day two of the Winter Games at the
Snow Farm in Wanaka in August. Photo by Getty Images.
New Zealand cross-country skiers have a lot in common
with rugby players from Georgia, the sports' administrators
say.
They have what it takes to compete against the world's best.
Now they have to narrow the performance gap.
To do that, they need more of the nation's high-performance
sporting knowledge and capital channelled in their direction.
Most of New Zealand's five-strong national cross-country ski
team are aged in their 20s and still have a long way to go to
reach their peak.
New Zealand has not had a cross-country skier at the Winter
Olympics since Madonna Harris, also an Olympic cyclist,
competed in Calgary 1988.
The present crop of athletes are not without talent and
commitment, but competition for the nation's high-performance
training resources is fierce.
Sport and Recreation New Zealand invests in and supports
elite sport through the New Zealand Academy of Sport, but
that support is contestable and mainly campaign-based.
Sparc this month begins the process of determining which
sports get support in 2010, with the decisions due on
November 18.
The criteria include creditable performances at Olympic,
Commonwealth or world cup/world championship levels.
Katie Calder (28) of Tauranga is Harris' likely successor in
Vancouver next year after meeting the Olympic A qualifying
standard in international races earlier this year.
She now has a International Federation of Skiing-subsidised
start in world cup events this northern hemisphere winter.
The New Zealand Cross Country Skiing Association has chosen
four more elite athletes to compete in various northern
hemisphere races over the next three months, in the hope
Calder might have company at Vancouver.
United States-based Ben Koons (23) is a strong qualifying
prospect after missing by just half a point during the Winter
Games in August.
Andy Pohl (20), of Dunedin, Andrea Fancy (28), of Wellington,
and Nat Anglem (36), of Christchurch, also have the ability
to meet the standards, according to NZCCSA chairman John
Alexander.
The association is confident its athletes and facilities have
earned international respect.
Now they need financial support from home.
"It is possible to get by while racing by sleeping on
couches, doing dishes, hitching rides with other teams, etc,"
Koons said in a recent interview.
"But your performance suffers and it is not feasible when you
are racing at the world cup level.
"A realistic figure for racing in Europe for three months
would be about $20,000, not including equipment."
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