Talent Camp Fostering Next Generation of Star Athletes

The 2013 Snow Sports New Zealand Winter Games Talent Camp took place from 16 - 19 August at Cardrona Alpine Resort in Wanaka. Sport New Zealand in partnership with Snow Sports New Zealand and Winter Games NZ offer this programme in order to grow participation and achievement in snow sports as part of the Winter Games Legacy Programme. The programme gives young ski and snowboard park and pipe athletes the opportunity to participate in a four day development camp in Wanaka during the Audi quattro Winter Games.

This image shows talented young athletes JJ, Carlos and Seb forerunning the World Cup slopestyle course for the Audi quattro Winter Games.

Quinn Thomson, a student journalist from local Mount Aspiring College in Wanaka, spent the day with the Talent Camp participants and here reports on 'A day in the life of an up-and-coming athlete.'

A day in the life...

Piling into a van full of extremely enthusiastic 'grommies' at 8am and a day in the life of an up and coming athlete begins.

Preparation and the donning of gear is dealt to with amazing haste as the 18-strong group is eager to get on the snow, even when the conditions are all but ideal. After a brief warm up, all of the riders are shredding the Olympic size 22ft halfpipe at Cardrona Alpine Resort with ease.

As the day progresses, and the conditions worsen, the 'grommies' stay hard at their pipe training as they know the path they're beginning on is not one that comes without dedicated hard work and sacrifice.

After lunch and the complete obliteration of tuna sandwiches, the group heads off to Frankton to 'Site' trampolining. Although the atmosphere amongst the the group is much more relaxed, the trampolines provide vital 'in air' training for progression to bigger and more technical tricks.

Upon returning to Wanaka, the team stop for some well deserved relaxation time, in the form of a casual footy match before hitting the books in the classroom with nutrition and mental preparation master classes.

Quinn's video below captures some of the day's activities and introduces the Talent camp athletes.

Winter Games Talent Camp 2013 from alex kerr on Vimeo.