New Zealand team members
Iain Roberts (30)
Skeleton racer
Lives: Edinburgh, Scotland (born England, dual New Zealand-British citizen).
Event: Skeleton took its name from the first, small metal sleds athletes used in Switzerland in the late 1800s, which looked a bit like a skeleton.
Today's sleds are made of fibreglass and metal.
Background: Roberts has been on the New Zealand team since 2004 and is competing at his first Winter Olympics.
He is ranked 44th on the world cup circuit.
He competed at the 2008 and 2009 world championships.
At the recent St Moritz, Konigssee and Igls world cups he was 21st, 18th and 25th respectively.
Chances: Skeleton medals are measured in 100ths of a second and races are won by a strong push and precision driving.
Roberts earned his spot on the team at Konigssee, where he achieved his best world cup result and equalled the 4.98sec push time of his ninth-placed team-mate, Ben Sandford.
Olympic medal prospects Martins Dukurs (Latvia), Frank Rommel (Germany) and Jon Montgomery (Canada) were first, third and sixth respectively at Konigssee.
Sandford finished that race between 0.41sec and 0.61sec behind Dukurs in both his runs, while Roberts was just slightly more than a second off the pace in both runs.
Dukar's total combined time was 1min 35:29 sec while Sandford's and Roberts' combined times were 1min 36.31sec and 1min 37.46sec respectively.
Race day: February 18 (heats) and February 19 (finals).
