At just 12 years old, Cromwell College student Lottie Faulkner is showing great potential, being recognised for the “natural and incredible gift she has for skiing”. Now a fundraising dinner next month is planned to help her chase that potential even further, with representing New Zealand in the Olympics the ultimate goal. Her father, Duncan Faulkner, said there was no holding Lottie back from the beginning — when she first braved the slopes at 3 years old, “As soon as she started there was pretty much no stopping her,” Mr Faulkner said. “There has always been this amazing drive in her that carried through to every race she does today. “We’ve had coaches and trainers speak of the weirdly natural and incredible gift she has for skiing, and you can tell she just loves it.” Lottie said as soon as she started, she could not stop and immediately decided this was exactly where she wanted to be and what she wanted to do. In 2020, at the age of 6, Lottie joined the Queesntown Alpine Ski Team (QAST) through a two-week introductory programme and quickly talked her parents into singing her up for the full programme, racing for the first time in July that year. She had trained three times per week at Coronet Peak or the Remarkables ever since. Taking the first overseas steps in pursuit of her passion, in December 2022, Lottie spent several months with her grandparents in Austria, training and racing with a local club in the Upper Austria and Interfield series. She returned for a second Austrian season from December 2023 to March 2024 before returning home to New Zealand again. From October 2025 to February 2026, Lottie attended a dedicated ski racing boarding school in Winischgarsten, Austria, training five days per week on and off snow while competing her studies in German. She split weekends between family and a host family before heading home again. Last year marked a major milestone for Lottie, the 12-year-old selected for the New Zealand Youth Squad, reserved for the country’s top-performing athletes that year. In April, she trained for three weeks and competed for New Zealand at the Whistler Cup in Canada, though she unfortunately skied out in both races and did not finish. Lottie and her father both said this was all part of it — part of the training process, and maintaining resilience and persistence. Lottie said so much of it was “as mental as it is physical,” with lots of highs and lows. She said skiing was a discipline that came down to milliseconds and absolute precision, so “a lot of it is about keeping calm and focusing on what you have trained for, and how best to approach each race”. “I do a lot of mindful breathing, and remembering why I love it. “When I’m about to start a race and I’m waiting at the top, I just think what I’ve got to do, run it all in my head and think about nothing else.” Alpine ski racing is split across several disciplines, slalom, giant slalom and super G, with Lottie competing across all three. Each tests different levels of technique, speed and precision as racers navigate a set course of gates. In the first three Interfield races this season, Lottie put her mindset as well as her training to the test. She did not finish her opening race after skiing too fast and missing a gate, but as Lottie said, “one race is just one race”, with that thinking bringing an added sense of freedom to the sport she does purely for the love of it. In the following two races, she placed first in her category, U14 girls. Her dad said her race times were fast enough to beat not only the U14 boys, but every U16 girl and “all but one U16 boy with less than a second between her and him”. He said watching his daughter compete was not always easy. “It can get scary watching her, especially going at the speeds they can get to.” Racers averaged 60kmh and could reach up to 90kmh with Super G speeds climbing to over 100kmh, but speed remained one of Lottie’s favourite parts about racing. Sponsorship has played a key role in Lottie’s progress so far, including support form Fitness Centre Cromwell, which tailors her gym sessions to her needs as a competitive athlete, and AJ Hackett providing sports psychology sessions. “At the end of the day, you just want your kids to enjoy it, whatever they’re doing, whatever they’re loving, you want them to just have fun more than anything.” To help fund her next chapter, training and open further career opportunities, Moreish Kitchen is hosting a fundraising dinner at Te Puna Mahara on Friday, September 18, featuring mountaineer Lydia Bradey ONZM, the first woman in the world to summit Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen. The evening includes a presentation from Ms Bradey on courage, resilience and embracing life-changing opportunities. Mr Faulkner said he and the rest of Lottie’s family could not be prouder. “She’ll go as far as she can, which means all the way, and we’ll be with her every step of it.” Tickets to the fundraising event, donations and sponsorship enquiries can be made via www.LottieFaulkner.com. carys.trotter@alliedmedia.co.nz
