Blog

Sochi Olympics 2014 - How did the Kiwis Perfrom?

The Olympic flame is out in Sochi and the athletes have headed home to catch the last of summer, or onwards to their next destination for more winter action.

The New Zealand Olympic committee report the Sochi Games as a “strong campaign” from the kiwi team “that has delivered 11 top 16 finishes, including four top eight Olympic Diplomas.”

Side Note: An Olympic Diploma is a paper certificate awarded to the top eight finishes in competitions at the Olympic Games (Wikipedia). Personally I think some athletes deserve a doctorate, with how much time, passion, sweet, tears and investment they have put in!

The New Zealand team was dominated by, mainly freestyle skiers and snowboarders. This winter Olympics were the first ones to include freestyle skiing and snowboard slope style to the menu. There were 10 members of the team competing in the new disciplines. It’s now hard to imagine how small the team would have been without the latest inclusion! Actually, I can calculate it, and it would have been only 5 athletes!

So what were the results? Well as far as I am concerned, and I feel I have enough experience to base this opinion on. They are all champions in my eyes. To just make it through the grueling 18 month qualification period to qualify for the games themselves, is an achievement it itself. Unfortunately the world puts a lot of emphasis on the one days performance at the games. Don’t get me wrong if you can continue from 18 months of consistently to take home a medal, holly smokes, that is awesome! Better than awesome, amazing! But hey, to come 4th-16th, or even 4th- 30th in the whole world… Still how awesome is that!

So a huge congratulations to all the kiwi athletes, you all rock! We can’t wait to see you back in Wanaka and on the snow again for the New Zealand winter!

New Zealand Ski and Snowboard Results

Ski Halfpipe Bex Sinclair from Snowboard Halfpipe. I managed to find Bex afer her frist training day, but security was tight!
Josie Wells 4th
Lyndon Sheehan 9th
Beau-James Wells 6th
Janina Kuzma 5th

Ski Slopestyle
Josie Wells 11th
Beau-James Wells 21st
Anna Wilcox 15th

Snowboard Halfpipe
Bex Sinclair 21st

Snowboard Slopestyle
Possum Torr 18th
Stefi Luxton 16th
Shelley Goblib 15th
Christy Prior 21st

Alpine Skiing Slalom
Adam Barwood 25th

Also not mention the great performance from our non-ski and snowboard team members, Katharine Eustace 11th Skeleton, Ben Sanford 20th Skeleton , Shane Dobin 7th in the 10,000m speed skating.

Previous and Coming up Next in Paula's Olympic Blog Series

• 8th January - History and Introduction
• 15th January - A Little Bit about my Favourite Sports
• 22nd January - Introducing Athletes from New Zealand
• 29th January - Introducing Athletes from Australia
• 19th February - In Sochi at the Olympics what was it really like?
• 24th February - Events wrap up - New Zealand Ski and Snowboard Results
• 4th March - How did Paula end up in Russia at the Olympics in the First Place?

Posted By: Paula Mitchell, @ Mon, 24th Feb 2014