Winter Olympics: Canada a stepping stone to Russia for Calder

Katie Calder. Photo / Getty Images

When Katie Calder begins her cross-country competition at the Winter Olympics, she could be forgiven for having a small part of her mind on events to take place in four years.

Calder, Canberra-born but with New Zealand parents and who calls Tauranga home, was the first athlete to complete the qualification criteria for her sport to get to Vancouver.

But while she's determined to justify her selection, the next Winter Games, in Sochi, Russia, in 2014 are in her thoughts too.

The 28-year-old believes that will be her best shot at making the podium, so Vancouver is partly about storing up as much knowledge as possible.

"These Olympics will no doubt be nerve-racking and a great challenge, but it is also an important stepping stone in my quest for a medal in 2014," she said.

"That is when I'll be around the physical prime age for a cross-country skier."

Her parents were from Palmerston North and Rotorua, but from an early age she divided her time between the two countries.

Cross-country skiing is not the first sport to which an athlete, even one with a fondness for winter pursuits, would naturally be drawn.

It is gruelling, skiers pushing themselves along terrain that includes flat and uphill sections on specially designed skis. Try doing that for 30km, as Calder will, having qualified for all the individual events - the 7.5km sprint, the 10km, 15km and 30km.

"I got into cross-country skiing at school as they needed a kid who was willing and able to run round a 3km loop for a team relay," Calder said.

She had dabbled with a variety of sports, including gymnastics, triathlon, cross-country and track running and softball.

"It seemed like a natural progression to do something new and challenging, something where in the Southern Hemisphere you're really doing a sport against the odds. Cross-country skiing is pretty exotic down south," she quipped.

From her first race, at 14, she was hooked - "after being totally wasted at the finish line".

She hasn't looked back.

Fast forward to January last year when Calder met the qualifying standard with two podium finishes at the Swiss championships.

The A qualifying criteria require athletes to have an average International Ski Federation points ranking of less than 100 points, calculated over five races.

Calder has performed to that standard about 15 times in the past 14 months.

"Although I managed to meet the A standard then it was important for me to know that I was also in shape this season and to be able to do the same," she said.

A broken wrist last October was a setback, "but the day they fitted the plate and screws into my wrist I was skiing in Austria with one pole".

As you do. Bounding up the mountains in Switzerland with an arm in a sling speaks volumes for both dedication and love of the sport.

Calder did plenty of training at altitude in the Engadin Valley in Switzerland, has been part of the St Moritz team for several seasons, and this weekend she has World Cup races in Calgary as a final tune-up.

But that's for later. She has yet to ski the Olympic course at Whistler, but has boned up on it.

"I've heard that it is quite a technical course and for me the harder the course [read that as plenty of uphill work] the better."

Calder, who favours the 10km event, which starts the women's competition on February 16, will have Ben Koons for cross-country company, as the Dunedin-based 23-year-old qualified for the men's discipline last year.