Sochi Winter Olympics 2014: New Zealand Team 11 Feb 2014
The Sochi Olympic Winter Games kick off in February 2014 and our athletes will be there to make New Zealand proud. A team of around 15 - 20 athletes is expected to head to Sochi representing New Zealand on both ice and snow, including in the new Olympic sports of freeski halfpipe and slopestyle and snowboard slopestyle. Olympians Shane Dobbin (long track speed skating Vancouver 2010), Blake Skjellerup (short track speed skating), Rebecca Sinclair (snowboard halfpipe Vancouver 2010), Ben Griffin (alpine, Vancouver 2010), Sarah Murphy (biathlon, Vancouver 2010) and Warren Dobson (curling, Torino 2006) have their eyes set on a second Olympic Games, while skeleton athlete Ben Sandford is heading for his third (Vancouver 2010 and Torino 2006). The bulk of the team, however, will be made up of first timers from the new disciplines including brothers Jossi, Byron and Beau-James Wells (freeski slopestyle and halfpipe) and Rebecca "Possum" Torr and Shelly Gotlieb in snowboard slopestyle. Qualification for the New Zealand Olympic Team is tough. Athletes must demonstrate their ability to finish in the top half of their fields at a stipulated number of qualifying events. New Zealand's elite athletes will be working towards selection to the team over the coming months with the majority of snow sports team members finalised in December and the ice sport athletes confirmed by January 2014. New Zealand has won just one medal at the Olympic Winter Games - Annelise Coberger secured silver in Alpine Skiing in 1992. With the magnificent Caucasus Mountains as a backdrop and stunning purpose-built venues set along the Black Sea coast, Sochi, Russia is ready to host an outstanding Olympic Games. Competition will take place in two distinct clusters, each with their own venues and Olympic Villages. The Mountain Cluster will see New Zealand's freeski, snowboard, sliding and alpine athletes compete against the best in the world while just thirty minutes away at the Coastal Cluster the ice sports including curling, long track and short track ice skating will take place. The games will comprise fifteen disciplines over seven winter sports and importantly will include freestyle skiing halfpipe and slopestyle and snowboard slopestyle for the very first time in Olympic history - exciting news for New Zealand's adrenaline-focused athletes. A total of 98 medals will be won at Sochi 2014, up from 86 at Vancouver 2010. Sochi is located in the Krasnodar region of Russia and has a population of 400,000. Biathlon 7 sports, 15 disciplines www.snow.co.nzAbout The NZ Team
About Sochi 2014
Sports at Sochi 2014
Bobsleigh: Bobsleigh and Skeleton
Curling
Ice Hockey
Luge
Skating: Figure Skating, Short Track Speed Skating and Speed Skating
Skiing: Alpine, Cross Country, Nordic Combined, Ski Jumping, Freestyle and SnowboardSochi by Numbers
98 medal events (49 men, 43 women, 6 mixed)
5,500 athletes
25,000 volunteers
13,000 media
11 competition venues
17 days of competition
3 billion television viewers
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