Ben Koons, New Zealand's fastest cross-country skier, is cut
from Kiwi cloth, but little is known about him here in his
country of birth.
Koons (23) and brother Nils (19) eschewed snow earlier this
year and instead chose to cycle 3894km through mountainous
Tibet in 54 days.
They took just three showers, shared 284 packets of instant
noodles and lost about 7kg each.
Soon after completing the trip, Koons - a qualified
environmental engineer - was in New Zealand for the Winter
Games and while relishing his return to snow, his China
adventures were still fresh in his mind.
"It was an incredible thing, a wild country, a tough country.
"We were by ourselves, camping the whole way.
"The toughest part was in West Tibet.
"It was a long, long way between villages.
"Getting enough food was a problem," he said.
There were many issues with bureaucracy and permits and the
Chinese authorities shut down their blog.
Koons was also bitten by a dog, resulting in another trip
highlight: a visit to a rabies clinic in Lhasa.
Koons wants to represent New Zealand in his struggling
minority sport at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in
February.
Koons first experienced skiing on snow-covered farmland on
the outskirts of Dunedin.
He was a 14-year-old Otago Boys High School pupil when his
family decided to move to the United States.
Koons had dabbled in cross-country skiing on school trips to
the Snow Farm, but his US-based lifestyle gave him a chance
many other New Zealand school pupils haven't had.
His skiing abilities won him a scholarship to further his
tertiary education at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where
he trained with a top coach, Ruff Paterson, and his
team-mates included Olympians and national champions.
Koons graduated in March and this winter worked as a Snow
Farm ski instructor, teaching high school pupils to
cross-country ski.
He's held a similar job in past seasons but did not work here
last winter because he was in Rwanda, on a volunteer United
Nations programme, building small hydro systems for
villagers.
He returns to the US this month to train and race full-time
in either North America or Europe, with qualifying for the
Olympics his only goal.
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