Kuzma won the freeskier of the year category at Saturday's Snow Sports New Zealand (SSNZ) awards night at The Venue in Wanaka, beating both world champion Jossi Wells and his brother Byron to the title. Her impressive performance on the Freeride World Tour circuit, which earned her a world No 3 ranking, was enough to secure the overall top athlete trophy too.
"Year over year, the awards process has become more difficult as the level of performance by all the New Zealand athletes escalates on the world stage," SSNZ coach and sport development director Adam Dooney said.
"The decision was a tough one but in the end, Janina's accomplishments on the Freeride World Tour Circuit placed her at the top."
A surprised Kuzma said the acknowledgement was particularly rewarding after the announcement earlier this year that freeski halfpipe would be included in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia. She was firmly focused upon the halfpipe.
"That's in my sights for the next couple of years ... I've still got that main focus on big-mountain skiing but the halfpipe is just awesome."
Winners in other categories were: adaptive snow sports athlete of the year, Carl Murphy; alpine ski racer of the year, Ben Griffin; cross-country skier of the year, Nils Koons; snowboarder of the year, Rebecca Sinclair; emerging talent, Rebecca Torr; coach of the year, Adi Bernasconi; volunteer of the year, Heather Clay; ski area services awards, Ohau and Cheeseman; instructor of the year, the Remarkables' Ross James; ski racing masters champions, Don McInnes and Liz Wallace and new award for contribution to snow sports, Duncan Smith.
The awards cover the 2010 southern hemisphere season and the 2010-11 northern hemisphere season.
