New Zealand's Alice Robinson speeds down the course during an alpine ski, women's World Cup super-G, in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Photo / AP
Just under a year ago, Kiwi skier Alice Robinson was on top of the world. But 2022 has been a struggle with equipment issues and a battle with Covid-19. Matt Brown looks at how Robinson plans to bounce back.
19-year-old Robinson was in the form of her life last March when she won the final Giant Slalom race of last season, at the World Cup Finals in Switzerland. It was the third victory of the teenager's blossoming career and had her marked as a real medal prospect for the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Nearly 12 months on and Robinson herself couldn't have imagined what has transpired in her favourite event. Last weekend in Lenzerheide, the scene of that World Cup Finals triumph, the 20-year-old didn't finish the first run.
24 hours earlier she crashed out of the Super G, ironically the event she has excelled the most in this season with a fourth, seventh and ninth in World Cup races.
Her best result in Giant Slalom is 11th in the season-opening race on the slopes of Solden in Austria last October and she finished a disappointing 22nd at the Olympics before crashing out of the Super G.
Robinson still has a GS in Are in Sweden this weekend where she will need a top 10 finish to confirm her place in the discipline at the World Cup Finals in Courchevel and Meribel in France next week. It's a chance to salvage something from a season that promised so much but ultimately has delivered so little.
The good news is the Kiwi is only 20 and other than American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, few skiers have achieved what Robinson has at such a tender age. Almost all her rivals are in their mid to late 20s and Shiffrin herself had a disastrous Olympics, failing to medal, with a ninth in the Super G her best individual result.
So why have things gone wrong for Robinson? She came into the season with high expectations and brimming with confidence after a strong off season at Coronet Peak.
There's no easy answer but there are a number of contributing factors.
After finishing a remarkable fourth in the St Moritz Super G in mid-December, Robinson and her coaching team contracted Covid-19. It saw her miss a Super G in Val d'lsere and back-to-back Giant Slalom races in Courchevel prior to Christmas. Any momentum gained from that fourth placing in St Moritz was lost. And perhaps with lingering effects from her self-isolation and Covid, Robinson returned after Christmas and failed to finish her next two Giant Slalom races in Lienz in Austria and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia.
The latter Robinson admitted her legs were gone halfway down the hill. Entering the season with high hopes of competing for the GS Globe (title for the best GS skier on the circuit) that dream was over barely midway through the campaign. But Robinson appeared to be back on track ahead of Beijing when she had an impressive seventh in Zauchensee in Austria and a ninth in Cortina in Italy in her two Super G races in January. Her coaches marvelled at how quickly she had adjusted to the speed discipline, having barely competed in a handful of World Cup Super G races prior to this season.
There was more encouragement when Robinson finished second twice in her first ever major Downhill races (at Europa Cup level in France), the tier below World Cup. That meant she could contest World Cup training runs in the blue riband event for the first time and her progress was rapid.
However, what Robinson needed was a confidence-boosting Giant Slalom result heading to Beijing. She had an opportunity to make a statement in her final race before the Olympics in Kronplatz in Italy, but she again struggled and finished 13th.
Still her team maintained she wasn't far away from getting it right and headed to China optimistic she could contend for the podium in two disciplines, GS and Super G.
It was apparent seconds into her first run in the GS that things were not right. Robinson was all over the place, like a race car driver fighting to keep control of the car, Robinson's skis failed to grip and she did well to complete the run. Mistakes at the top of the course meant she was several seconds off the pace and out of medal contention. She battled bravely to finish 22nd. but immediately thoughts went to what was wrong with her skis.
Before each race a ski technician preps the skis, fine tunes them, waxes them to prepare them for whatever conditions are on the race course. It's a fine art and just like a Formula One car, everything needs to be perfect. But something went horribly wrong with the skis on the hard-packed manmade Beijing snow.
"Yeah, Beijing was interesting. It was different conditions to anything I've ever skied on before. I went out of the start gate and straight away just didn't feel right," Robinson told the Herald from Munich as she prepared to depart for Sweden and the GS in Are.
"There was nothing I could do and if that GS race wasn't the Olympics, just a normal World Cup race, I probably would have stopped but because it was the Olympics I decided to hold on and just get down as best I could. But I definitely felt like I was skiing at about 50 percent the whole way because I couldn't really put any power into the ski," Robinson lamented.
Robinson is contracted to Volkl the German ski manufacturer. It's interesting to note she is the only big name on the women's circuit to use the brand of skis. Three brands have been dominating on the World Cup circuit, Rosignol, Head and Atomic. In Beijing the 15 women's alpine ski medals were split between those three brands. Rosignol, which won six medals, Head with five medals including three gold and Atomic which won three medals. So, could the skis Robinson uses be a part of the problem?
While Robinson declined to comment, her co-coach Chris Knight is convinced her skis have been a major factor in her struggles.
"The first issue has been equipment and second issue has been Covid. Alice has not been skiing bad in GS at any time this season, in her training, her splits in races have been good," Knight said.
Knight revealed Robinson was testing different brands of skis, Solomon and Head last year but they decided not to change the equipment ahead of the Olympic season.
"We just didn't have the possibility to figure out the equipment before the season started.
And then with the travel restrictions to New Zealand and Alice going home, we also had to make a plan going into the New Zealand winter and then into the Olympic season," Knight said.
"Everything pointed to sticking with Volkl for another year, because we knew the equipment and there wasn't a lot of work to be done figuring that out, as you would have to do with a new company. Plus, we couldn't get all the staff down to New Zealand that we needed to help us with that."
It's clear from Knight's remarks that Robinson is likely to be on different skis next year.
"There are a lot of reasons with sticking with Volkl this year, but we'll definitely be revisiting the equipment testing at the end of the season here, for sure," Knight said.
The effects of contracting Covid-19 in December can't be overlooked. It's been suggested that Robinson and other athletes who got the virus such as Shiffrin and Swiss star Lara Gut-Behrami have had lingering effects. Gut Behrami while medalling twice in Beijing has sat out the last two GS races before the World Cup finals and Shiffrin was not herself at the Games.
But what about Robinson?
"Well, we don't really know, to tell you the truth, she's been in great shape, she's been able to, do every training session that we've done, we put her through a really good conditioning program leading into the Olympics to pick her for those events. And she's managed everything, no problem at all, I'd say, with Covid, with disappointments in results and all the restrictions that we've still had to face. It's possible that it's taken a mental toll. But I don't think physically," Knight said.
The other contributing factor is Robinson's workload. Prior to this season the 20-year-old had effectively been a one discipline skier achieving remarkable success in Giant Slalom as a teenager, but adding Super G and eventually Downhill to her repertoire this season has meant a big adjustment.
"It's been definitely challenging. It's been a kind of different season for me. I've always been a one event skier and this year I have taken on three events So there has been a lot of learnings and experiences and learning how to manage the different workload and then, catching Covid as well definitely put a bit of a spanner in there," Robinson said.
"I'm feeling pretty drained. Also, because we had that lockdown in New Zealand in July and August and have been skiing nonstop since mid-August. The longest time I've had off skiing is four days in total."
"I've had a lot of travel, insane amount of traveling this year, we've been to like 13 countries and three continents. And it's been very full on and draining. And then throwing the Olympics in is a lot of mental energy."
Co-coach Knight remains adamant Robinson has been skiing well throughout the season despite not producing the results.
"She's been skiing great and her training has compared well against all the top athletes and the day before we raced in GS in Lenzerheide (last weekend) she had the same times as Tessa (Worley who won the race.) I know people always leave something in reserve for the race and so does Alice. But when you see Alice competitive with the top athletes in the world, she's skiing well and we know from her technique and everything else she's skiing well. So we are just looking for those lucky breaks to get her in that top 10 and then we'll be off to finals in GS and Super G which has been out of sight good," Knight said.
While she needs a top 10 result in Sweden to qualify for the World Cup Finals in GS, Robinson isn't putting pressure on herself.
"I think I ski my best when I'm just relaxed. I've been skiing really well in training, so I need to go out there and enjoy it and if I just ski solid, then I'll be fine. The only reason I'm questioning whether I'm going to World Cup finals is because I hadn't been finishing and I missed three races because of Covid and then I had DNF in three races. So that's just kind of what was the way it is."
It's the first time in six years that Penrith has made the trip to Auckland.