Kiwi snowsports athletes hungry to compete against world's best

Professional skydiver Chuck Berry parachutes into Victoria Park to promote the Winter Games. 2 July 2015. New Zealand Herald photograph by Jason Oxenham.

Corey Peters and Anna Wilcox said New Zealand's snowsports athletes are hungry to compete against the world's best at the forthcoming Winter Games NZ.

The pair were speaking at Chuck Berry's wing suit flight across Auckland which marked 50 days until the games kick off on August 21 in Queenstown, Wanaka and Naseby.

New Zealand's finest will be competing against Olympic and Paralympic snowsport athletes from across the world and it will be free at all but a few events for spectators to watch in person or live on TV or online.

Peters is currently a double IPC Alpine Skiing World Champion and he won a silver medal in the giant slalom at the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.

"The enjoyment of being able to ski on your home turf is great. We always have to travel around the world to compete against top athletes and to have that much support at home is exciting.

"The aim is to really try and spread the word out to the Auckland area and bring that down to Queenstown. The Winter Games is such a big event for New Zealand winter athletes and it's just amazing really.

"The ski fields only opened up a couple of weeks ago so we're easing back into it but we'll start ramping it up throughout July and getting ready for August."

The games will showcase alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freeskiing, snowboarding and curling but Wilcox, who competes in the freeskiing, will sadly miss out because of an anterior cruciate ligament injury she picked up last December.

At just 23 she's a member of New Zealand's freeski team and she competed in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

"The Winter Games is pretty special and it's huge for the southern hemisphere. It's also the World Cup for snowboard and freeski which is pretty amazing.

"It's growing more and more each year so that's pretty wicked to see and what makes it stand out, is there's things going on in town free to watch for everyone to come and check it out."

Chuck's sky dive means the countdown to the games is well and truly under way and Peters said his next big targets were the 2017 World Championships and the next Winter Olympics - held in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Wilcox is still working hard to recover from her serious knee injury but she has her sights set on a return to action before the end of the year.

"I just want to get back on the tour and competing and of course the 2018 Olympics is a big dream for me.

"From surgery it was really tough to see everyone competing and all that without me. I put skiing aside for a bit and packed away my stuff so I didn't really have to look at it.

"I really got on with things in the gym so I started focusing on my body. I could only do so much but each week your training changes so it doesn't get boring.

"I was able to learn more about my body and more about myself off the snow and it's the first time I've had a really serious amount of time off since I started. It was nice to reboot and refresh so I'm really ready to go when I'm back on the snow."