New Zealand's youngest Winter Olympian named

Nico Porteous poses during a New Zealand Winter Olympic portrait session on August 25, 2017 in Wanaka, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Nico Porteous should be preparing for his NCEA Level One exams; instead his eyes are on the place where he'll realise his Winter Olympic dream next February.

Porteous, at 15, is New Zealand's youngest Winter Olympian, named in an initial group of nine for PyeongChang, South Korea and will have his brother, 18-year-old Miguel, for company.

Both have qualified in the freeski halfpipe discipline in a group where the accent is heavily on youth.

Of the nine, take out 32-year-old freeskier Janina Kuzma, preparing for her second Olympics and 26-year-old skier cross racer Jamie Prebble, and the other seven are 20 or under.

Porteous, born in Hamilton, raised in Christchurch and now living in Wanaka, dips under Kendall Brown, who was 16 when she competed at Torino in 2006, as the country's youngest.

"It's definitely a dream come true and it'll be very cool to walk into the opening ceremony and standing at the top of the halfpipe with my brother," Porteous said.
And of course he's better than big brother right?

"100 percent no, I'm not better than my brother." Then again remember he's the youngest person in the world to land a triple cork 1440 and he's had sixth and eighth placings in World Cup halfpipe events this year.

He's a young man with an ambition to make the top 10 who will advance to the final in Korea but there's much to happen both between now and then, and also on the day.
"It's going to be so cool to have that many people I know and ski with on a daily basis around me," he added.

Kuzma is delighted to be going to her second Games after finishing fifth on the halfpipe at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

She feels she's far better now than then - "100 percent" - and if others reckon she's getting on in years, Kuzma doesn't share that view.

"Not at all. It's funny. I like to call myself one of the mature athletes. I'm not feeling my age, I don't think you ever could in this sport. We'll always be young at heart."

Among the others named today are Christchurch's Prebble, a silver medallist at this year's world championship skier cross; Carlos Garcia Knight, who won slopestyle snowboard silver at the juunior world championships; and gifted 16-year-old Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who won a world championship silver medal last year in snowboard slopestyle, and gold at a World Cup last year.

Another batch of athletes will be named in the coming weeks, with the total New Zealand team expected to round out about 20.

New Zealand's Winter Olympians for PyeongChang, South Korea from February 9-25:
Nico Porteous (Wanaka, freeski halfpipe), Miguel Porteous (Wanaka, freeski halfpipe), Rakai Tait (US based, snowboard halfpipe), Janina Kuzma (Wanaka, freeski halfpipe), Finn Bilous (Wanaka, freeski slopestyle), Zoi Sadowski Synnott (Wanaka, snowboard slopestyle and Big Air), Tiarn Collins (Queenstown, snowboard slopestyle and Big Air), Carlos Garcia Knight (Christchurch, snowboard slopestyle and Big Air), Jamie Prebble (Christchurch, skier cross).