Queenstown skiers Michelle Greig (21) and Tim Cafe (22) and Dunedin skeleton racer Toinette Stoddard (30) have been confirmed as members of the New Zealand Winter Olympics team to travel to Vancouver next month.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee yesterday confirmed 10 athletes in the team, with further announcements regarding snowboarders to be made early next week.
The Otago trio is among several first-time Olympians in the team.
Cross-country skier Ben Koons (23), a former Otago Boys High School pupil who has worked at the Snow Farm and now lives in Canada, will also be attending his first Olympic Games.
Dual New Zealand-Canada national Sarah Murphy (21) has been selected as New Zealand's first Olympic biathlete and could join the team next week, pending confirmation of a quota spot from the International Biathlon Union.
Murphy is another Snow Farm protege and has been based in Wanaka for the past two years.
Her selection has delighted Snow Farm owner Mary Lee, who helped found Nordic sports disciplines in New Zealand in the 1980s.
"It is absolutely wonderful. I am really excited.
"I am even looking at airfares.
"It is so exciting because of the fact we have Ben and Katie [Calder] going as well.
"Ben started in our academy . . . and Sarah has worked for us for two years and we are hoping she will come back and help us again," Lee said yesterday.
Chef de Mission Peter Wardell said yesterday he was delighted the first members of the squad had been named.
The athletes were overseas training and competing.
"With just 22 days until the opening ceremony, it certainly has been a nerve-wracking wait for the athletes.
"They have maintained intense training and competition schedules and now can focus on what lies ahead," Wardell said.
New Zealand Olympic selector and secretary general Barry Maister said strategies around high performance in winter sports were paying off and should deliver improved results in Vancouver and in Sochi in 2014.
"There has been an increased focus on winter sports in New Zealand and the NZOC has supported this with the distribution of Olympic Solidarity scholarships to the athletes to the value of $330,000, seed funding of the 2009 Winter Games NZ and ongoing financial support for the Winter Performance Programme.
"We're positive that the combined efforts of the [various sporting bodies and the winter performance programme] will lead to improved Olympic performances," he said.
The athletes will be based at Olympic Villages in Whistler and Vancouver before the opening ceremony on February 12.
The Games close on February 28.
New Zealand first took part in a Winter Olympic Games in 1952 in Oslo with a team of five athletes.
Since then, New Zealand has had 72 winter Olympians and one winter medallist in Annelise Coberger who took silver in the slalom in 1992 at Albertville.
New Zealand's next-best results were two fourths in short-track skating (relay team and individual) at Albertville in 1992 and eighth in short-track skating in Lillehammer in 1994.
Skeleton racer Ben Sandford was 10th at Turin in 2006.
Vancouver 2010
Provisional NZ team
Cross-country skiing: Ben Koons (23), Maine, Canada; Katie Calder (29) Tauranga.
Skeleton: Tionette Stoddard (35) Dunedin; Iain Roberts (30) Edinburgh, Scotland; Ben Sandford (30) Rotorua.
Skating: Short track, Blake Skjellerup (24), Christchurch; speed skating, Shane Dobbin (30) Palmerston North.
Freeski: Michelle Greig (21), Queenstown.
Alpine ski: Tim Cafe (22), Queenstown; Ben Griffin (23), OhakuneBiathlon (confirmed pending quota spots): Sarah Murphy (21), Banff, Canada.
