Calder has Games goal in sight

Tauranga crosscountry skier Katie Calder makes a rare foray Downunder this week hoping a strong showing at the Winter Games near Queenstown will leave a lasting impression on New Zealand's Winter Olympics selectors.
The 28-year-old, based for most of the year in Switzerland, has already posted an A-qualifying mark for next year's Winter Games near Whistler and just needs to be rubber-stamped after switching allegiance last year to New Zealand from Australia.
Calder has spent the past eight months on the gruelling European crosscountry skiing circuit during the northern hemisphere winter.
Part of the St Moritz nordic ski team since 2005, Calder has raised a few eyebrows among her European counterparts with her podium finishes.
She has achieved an A-qualifying standard for the Winter Olympics  in February, based on her standings and points earned on the International Ski Federation (FIS) World Cup circuit.
Calder claimed a second and third place at Switzerland's crosscountry championships in January, following the 2008 northern winter during which she won one of Europe's largest endurance events - the 30km Gommerlauf nordic race.
Meeting the A qualification standard for the Olympics has removed some pressure for Calder as she returns for a rare stint in New Zealand.
"It leaves me to concentrate on getting some good results in the Australia New Zealand [ANZ] Cup racing series. I don't have to peak for each race just to try and get FIS points," she said.
However, the final decision on whether the Australian-born Calder is selected to wear the silver fern at Vancouver lies with the New Zealand Olympic Committee. Calder, who now calls Tauranga home, was named crosscountry skier of the year at the New Zealand snowsports awards  last month.
If she is selected for the Vancouver Winter Olympic team she will become only the second crosscountry skier to do so (Madonna Harris, a Canadian-based New Zealand cyclist, was selected to nordic ski at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988).
The ANZ series also includes a  home leg of three races (1km, 5km, 15km pursuit) at the Snow Farm, near Wanaka, which will take place as part of the Winter Games.
Calder, who is back in Tauranga next month,  usually spends between six and eight weeks based at the Snow Farm during New Zealand's winter, training and competing at the Pisa Range facility and also travelling to Australia to race.
She admits the life of a crosscountry skier can revolve around a gruelling travelling schedule. The grind of racing on the European circuit involves driving up to 12 hours per trip to race meetings nearly every weekend.
Although she claims not to have "too many interests" outside the sport - "we do so much training that I don't have much down time" - Calder has still found time to learn three languages.
After spending the past four years based in St Moritz, a resort town in the Swiss Alps, Calder is fluent in German and is working on her French and Italian.
Many of the top international names in elite freeskiing are confirmed for the Winter Games.
These include arguably the world's best known freeskier, Jon Olsson, of Sweden, who is the star attraction at the closing event of the Games, the Big Air on August 30 at Coronet Peak.
Heading the New Zealand charge is former world superpipe champion and X Games slopestyle silver medallist Jossi Wells, 17, of Wanaka, who will compete in all three disciplines of slopestyle, halfpipe and big air.
The inaugural New Zealand Winter Games will take place at Coronet Peak, the Remarkables, Cardrona Alpine Resort, Snow Farm, Naseby and Dunedin. 
It will feature disciplines of alpine skiing, freeskiing, crosscountry skiing, snowboarding, curling, ice skating and adaptive snow sports as well as the demonstration sports of winter triathlon and natural luge.