Madeleine Bohlin (19) and Marika Backman (20) attend a school in Sveg, Sweden, where biathlon - a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting - forms part of the curriculum. The young women are in New Zealand with their coach, former Swedish national biathlon team member Erik Albinder, as the inaugural participants in the International Biathlon Union (IBU) exchange scheme between New Zealand and Sweden.
''It's awesome; perfect,'' Albinder said, when asked this week how the trio rated Snow Farm as a training venue.
Snow Farm's ski tracks were firm and varied and on a par with some of the best in the world, he said.
He and his young proteges agreed the warmer, sunnier weather in New Zealand was also a bonus. Temperatures during training sessions in Sweden could sometimes drop to -25degC, they said.
While Swedish biathletes can train and compete on Scandinavian glaciers during their summer, the snow conditions were nowhere near as good as those in the southern hemisphere's winter.
The Swedish women and their coach joined a group of young New Zealand, Australian, Japanese and Italian biathletes taking part in the IBU/International Olympic Committee Oceania Development Camp, held during the past week at Snow Farm.
After the camp finished on Tuesday, the Swedes squeezed in some sightseeing throughout the Queenstown Lakes district, before their busy training schedule at Snow Farm continues. They will remain in New Zealand to compete at the secondary school cross-country and biathlon championships at Snow Farm next week, where ''they're going to cream it'', Biathlon New Zealand executive committee chairman John Burridge said.
''As skiers, they're superb. From our point of view, it shows our [New Zealand biathlon] kids what they can aspire to and it's actually making them much more motivated.''
The reciprocal part of the IBU-sponsored exchange will see five New Zealand biathletes and a coach/manager travel to Sweden in December for training and to compete at various European events.
All of the New Zealand athletes at the recent development camp were eligible to be considered for selection for the Swedish trip.
Mr Burridge said Swedish biathlon officials were keen to get more females involved, which the New Zealand exchange would help achieve, as it showed the ''exotic'' destinations biathletes could travel to through their sport.
