Skiing: Alice Robinson primed for domestic ski season

Top New Zealand skier Alice Robinson is hoping to use the Covid-19 pandemic to her advantage on her home slopes this winter. The 18-year old stunned the Alpine skiing world with two victories on the World Cup Giant Slalom circuit that was reduced to six races due to the coronavirus.

Robinson has spent the last nine weeks at home in Queenstown as she waits for the domestic ski season to get underway, hopefully late next month.

"I think it's so important; having a winter down here without the ski resorts would be really tough for some people because that's what they look forward to and what they live for and it's a very big part of people's lives." Robinson said.

Without the overseas tourists "There's a chance for the rest of New Zealand to come down which would be really cool because it's such a big part of the culture down here and it's a great form of exercise."

Robinson would normally be in Europe this month at a training camp on the glaciers but with travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines, Robinson is pinning her hopes on the likes of Coronet Peak and the Remarkables opening this winter.

"If the season gets underway I should be able to get some good quality training happening which will be perfect." Robinson said.

"I think a lot of the other teams will be jealous that I get to train on winter snow at home which will be to my advantage."

Her rivals may well be stranded in the Northern Hemisphere Foreign teams regularly train in New Zealand during the Northern Hemisphere summer but due to the closed borders are unlikely to get access this year.

"It's always good to have other teams around during the off season to keep motivated. In the past couple of years it's been more the boy's teams than girl's teams and it's been good to have that high level environment around me." Robinson said.

Normally Robinson doesn't hit the New Zealand slopes until August but that's set to change this year.

"I'm not normally up there on the first day but this year I probably will be because I won't be to North America or Europe for a training camp. I will be starting earlier now which is exciting so I'll be itching to get up there in amongst it."

However the Kiwi star may not have the services of her coaching team alongside her initially.

Robinson's Italian based Kiwi coach Chris Knight is waiting to see what happens with the mountains here while her other coach Jeff Fergus is American.

"It's going to be tough because my other two staff are Americans and so they're not allowed to come down here. We might try to see if they can make an exemption or something but they would still have to do two weeks quarantine so it's kind of a tricky situation."

Robinson is unsure if the FIS Giant Slalom season will start at the end of October in Solden in Austria where she is the defending champion. But she is extremely positive about her chances of being around the podium next season.

"I'll be solid in the top Seven next year (in terms of start positions with the better snow conditions ) so it's going to be a matter of putting down my winning runs every run and trying to do the same and then hopefully I can become the defending champion."

Despite her stunning success, funding remains an issue for Robinson with Snow sports NZ covering about 20 percent of her costs last year.

"It's hard to be asking for money now when it's such a tough environment."

Robinson raced home from Europe in early March after the final Giant Slalom of the season was cancelled in Sweden.

"It's coming up to my ninth week in isolation I guess and it feels like it's been a lifetime ago since I thought about traveling over to Europe. I've just been doing strength training after two weeks off and I have been doing a lot of runs and bikes from home."