The best winter athletes in the world are expected to descend on Kiwi snow for the Winter Games NZ, two and half weeks’ of snow sports action and the biggest snow sports event in the Southern Hemisphere, which starts this Friday (August 23).

Winter Games NZ and its resort partners will host ten events across Freeride, Alpine and Park and Pipe at The Remarkables Ski Area, Coronet Peak and Cardrona Alpine Resort.

The Games kick off with The North Face Frontier 2* and 4* Freeride World Qualifier events at The Remarkables. The North Face Frontier 2* is a key stop on the freeride pathway in New Zealand, with 120 athletes set to compete. 

The North Face Frontier 4*, which has launched many Kiwi freeride careers globally, has a full start list of 60 athletes set to battle it out for Freeride World Qualifier points, including New Zealand’s Jess Hotter. 

The action will then head across the Wakatipu Basin to Coronet Peak, where two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Giant Slalom and two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup Slalom races will be held.  

More than 140 athletes are expected to don the Winter Games NZ pink Alpine bibs, including Kiwi alpine ski racing superstar Alice Robinson, double Olympic gold medalist Austrian-Dutch ski racer Marcel Hirscher, and 2023 FIS Slalom crystal globe winner Norwegian-Brazilian ski racer Lucas Braathen.

The 2024 Park & Pipe programme at Cardrona Alpine Resort will include two FIS Australia New Zealand Cup (ANC) Premium events and two FIS World Cup events presented by La Roche Posay and Cardrona Alpine Resort. 

The FIS ANC Snowboard Halfpipe and Freeski Slopestyle events are crucial competitions for Kiwi and Australian athletes looking to secure the ANC series win and earn themselves a World Cup start for the upcoming 2025 FIS World Cup season. 

Preliminary entries in the snowboard halfpipe include Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games medallists Lucia Georgalli and Campbell Melville Ives, both of Wānaka. In the slopestyle will be Gangwon 2024 Youth Olympic Winter Games gold medallist Flora Tabanelli of Italy and 2024 World Cup podium athletes Ruby Star Andrews and Luca Harrington of Wānaka.

The Park & Pipe FIS World Cup programme consists of a Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup and Freeski Halfpipe World Cup. These World Cup events mark the first time a FIS World Cup has been held on New Zealand snow since 2019. They also mark the first opportunity for athletes to earn Olympic qualification points towards the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games. 

The FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup is sure to be a heater, with 90 of the top snowboard slopestyle athletes in the world set to compete on Cardrona’s Big Bucks Terrain Park. 

Local legend Zoi Sadowski-Synnott will be in action, alongside Beijing 2022 Big Air gold medalist Anna Gasser of Austria and current World Champion Mia Brookes of the UK. In the men’s competition Beijing 2022 gold medalist Su Yiming of China and current World Champion Marcus Kleveland of Norway will be part of a stacked field. 

The 2024 Winter Games NZ programme will wrap up with the FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Cup, where Wānaka’s Nico Porteous, Beijing 2022 Olympic gold medalist and China’s Eileen Gu, Beijing 2022 triple Olympic medalist, will compete alongside current World Champion Brendan Mackay (CAN), double Olympic medalist Cassie Sharpe (CAN) and decorated Estonian skier Kelly Sildaru. 

PHOTO: Supplied