Mia Callingham is a snow skier with Olympic dreams. Photo / George Novak
Mia Callingham is a snow skier with Olympic dreams. Photo / George Novak
At 17, Pāpāmoa teenager Mia Callingham has her goals set and knows how hard she has to work to make sure she achieves them. Adyn Ogle chats to the freestyle skier eyeing selection for the Winter Olympics.
There can't be many Winter Olympics hopefuls training in their backyard in Pāpāmoathis summer - but Mia Callingham is.
The 17-year-old has her eyes set on competing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a freestyle skier - a sport she's taken up only in recent years. In order to increase her chances of getting there the former Mount Maunganui College students switched to correspondence for her final year of secondary school and spent the winter training in Wanaka.
Callingham still needs to qualify for the Olympics but she has shown early promise in the sport she is still learning.
Just last month she claimed the national Under-18 Female skier title at the 2019 Snow Sports New Zealand Junior Freestyle National Championship at Cardrona Alpine.
Before she found freestyle skiing, Callingham was a BMX and mountain bike rider, claiming national accolades in BMX. It wasn't until Year 11 that Callingham pursued ski racing, which progressed to her stint in Wanaka this year to take up intense freestyle training.
"Once I set my mind to something, I want to do it," Callingham says.
"Being a winter Olympian has been in my mind for ages."
Mia Callingham on the slopes in Wanaka earlier this year. Photo / supplied
She trialled for Cardrona's Parks Squad, which is for freestyle skiers and snowboarders wanting to train all season to excel in their sport, and got in.
"I would ski four days and work two days and do my schoolwork online."
Now that she's back home in Pāpāmoa with warmer weather conditions, the trampoline in her backyard is where she'll be basing most of her training.
She'll use her tramp to practice movements used in freestyle tricks, before heading to the United States in February for a two-month training camp in Utah and returning to Wanaka for the New Zealand winter.
Being in the high performance environment has Callingham rubbing shoulders with the likes of Olympic bronze medalist Nico Porteous and the Wells brothers but she says she has a lot of work ahead to reach the top level.
"Being around them makes me see it is possible. My ski racing background has helped in the halfpipe. You need really good movement patterns and I have a run that I ideally need to put down.
"There is a World Cup event in Cardrona next season and that is the first step in qualifying."
Snow skier Mia Callingham trains on her trampoline. Photo / George Novak
Callingham's coach Peter Legnavsky, the Parks Squad director, says Callingham's work ethic is superb, and he believes she has the capability to be an Olympian.
"She is coming in late in the piece at 17, but what makes her unique is she has a ski racing, BMX and gymnastics background. That speeds up her process," Legnavsky says.
"At the start I went for a couple of tramp sessions with her and she got as much stuff as similar girls would get in a whole season. It was exciting to watch how far she went on the skill she already had.
"She then probably got a couple of seasons worth of halfpipe training in 10 sessions. Hopefully with another season of consistent halfpipe training she can catch up."
Legnavsky says Callingham has to make progress every day.
"She has to ski at least 200 days a year so she will have to go overseas for at least three months. She has all the skills, all she is missing is the experience. Her work ethic is great. She is there and she just goes.
"I train a lot of people, and some people would choose to not train if it is bad weather, she just goes out there. Her ability to crash and get back is amazing as well.
"She has everything going for her as a person and she has a really supportive family."
