The New Zealand biathlete has not qualified yet for the Winter Olympics in Russia next February, and after ''a lot of bad luck last year'' - illness and a broken rifle - she needs all the chances she can get to impress officials with improvements in placings and speed.
''These Winter Games are really very important for me and my bid for the Olympics,'' she said yesterday.
Racing at the Snow Farm from 9am, Murphy (25) will be up against Nordic ski sensation and 2010 Winter Olympic gold medallist Justyna Kowalczyk, of Poland.
Rather than be intimidated, she was excited about the opportunity to compare herself to the world No 3 in the sprint distance.
''She is very strong and it really shows how you need to train to be the best.''
The other eye-catcher todaywill be Russian Olympic cross-country skiing champion Nikita Kriukov, likely to set the pace in the men's race.
Murphy, Kowalczyk and Kriukov are among what Winter Games media manager Victoria Murray-Orr calls the ''creme de la creme of the snow sports world''. There are 750 athletes from 41 nations competing over the next 11 days.
''For New Zealand to be able to see athletes of this calibre shouldn't be something taken for granted,'' Murray-Orr said.
Given the star quality sprinkled across the five sports - alpine skiing, freeskiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing and curling - Murray-Orr hoped that history might be made.
''We just never know what they are going to pull out,'' she said of the athletes' abilities to go higher, faster or simply better.
One man who is virtually guaranteed to pull off something astounding is reigning Olympic snowboard halfpipe champion Shaun White, of the United States.
He was sounding relaxed in a statement released yesterday.
''Heading to New Zealand and competing at Winter Games NZ leading up to the Olympics is a tradition for me,'' White said.
''The country is beautiful and the people are some of the nicest I have met.''
Other big names in the snowboard camp are women's halfpipe Olympic gold medallist Torah Bright (Australia), and the world's best overall men and women freeskiers, Gus Kenworthy (United States) and Tiril Sjastad Christiansen (Norway).
One of New Zealand's best hopes for Winter Games glory is Paralympic gold medallist Adam Hall.
He is competing in the alpine slalom adaptive world cup on August 22-23 at Coronet Peak. Jossi Wells, ranked No 2 overall on last season's Association of Freeskiing Professionals world tour, and younger brother Byron will be local hopes in freeskiing.
In Naseby, the curling teams from Japan and Korea are New Zealand's main rivals for the two remaining Olympic qualification places.
Helping the events run smoothly will be the ''small army'' of 400 volunteers, covering 1300 positions.
Each volunteer had made themselves available for an average of three days, ''which is really incredible'' for the small communities based near the Games venues, chief executive Arthur Klap said.
The Games village at Earnslaw Park hosts the first medal ceremony and the opening ceremony.
From 1pm today, the village will be open with live music, and the opening ceremony, featuring speeches, a local iwi blessing and the raising of the flag, begins at 5.30pm.
Winter Games
The facts
- Events will be held at Coronet Peak, Cardrona Alpine Resort, the Snow Farm and the Naseby Indoor Curling Rink.
- All events are free to watch, except the curling, which is a gold coin donation.
- Watch the action live-streamed into the Wanaka (Ardmore St) and Queenstown (Earnslaw Park) Lotto Villages.
