A slippery path to success

When Ben Sandford completed a conjoint degree in law and arts in 2002, he could have slipped into a legal firm and focused on billable hours.

Instead a chance encounter with a sledding track in Austria when on a university squash tour meant he threw himself into skeleton racing. Accounting for every six minutes of his time in a bespoke suit was replaced by a life of 24/7 adrenalin in industrial strength lycra. For the past 11 years, his jandals, togs and beach towel have been redundant as he lives through an endless winter.

Sandford has become quite the jetsetter but on a microlight budget. He is in pursuit of a third - and likely final - Olympics place after finishing 10th in Torino and 11th in Vancouver. Last week, he had an itinerary James Bond would be proud of - Sochi (home to February's Winter Olympics), Istanbul, Frankfurt, Calgary. The Herald on Sunday caught up with him at a "quiet spot" in transit at a Frankfurt youth hostel.

Sandford's chances of being selected for Sochi are high. He needs to be in the top 60 of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation rankings to gain New Zealand a spot while finishing in the top half of the field at 50 per cent of the upcoming World Cups to satisfy the New Zealand Olympic Committee. The final cut-off for selection is January 17.

It should be a cinch. Sandford's pedigree is strong - he became the second New Zealander (after his Uncle Bruce) to earn a world championship medal in the discipline. Bruce won gold in 1992, while Ben took bronze last year at New York's Lake Placid. He was 11th this year in St Moritz, home to the sport (it was apparently invented to reduce the time taken to get from the mountains to town).

Sandford's job involves constant danger. He runs onto ice, leaps onto a steel sled less than half-a-metre square, travels at upwards of 130km/h, ideally uses his knees (sometimes it's the shoulders or toes in tricky circumstances) for steering and can get his helmet forced into the ice with up to 6Gs of force. At least it's a buzz.

"You can't afford to be scared," he says. "Sure, there's a natural anxiety when it comes to performance but it's a case of trying to be relaxed and controlling your adrenalin."

Sandford has been at the heart of the sport's recent development. His legal background makes him a useful athlete representative on the sport's governing body. He discusses contentious issues with the powers-that-be. The key one has been speed in the aftermath of the Vancouver Games where Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed on the sledding course after hitting a steel pole at 143km/h. Safety has become paramount at Sochi.

"Pre-accident, organisers wanted the longest, fastest, most difficult track in the world," Sandford says. "But they obviously had no desire for a repeat death so changed the track design to slow us down. I understand a third uphill section was added."

Sandford recently spent two weeks training at the new Olympic track and finished eighth there at the most recent World Cup in February.

"Sochi is nowhere near as fast or demanding as touted. The fastest speed I've done is 127-128km/h, which is 18-19km/h less than Vancouver [at the Whistler Sliding Centre]."

As part of his administrative role, Sandford has advocated more pre-Olympic practice runs. Since he raced at Torino in 2006, the number of training runs has increased from 20 to 40, a figure now enshrined in the sport's Olympic rules.

"That has to be combined with plenty of time learning the lines of the track and developing a steering plan. The more you know a track, the more you can adapt."

At 34, Sandford expects this will be his last Games. Constantly budgeting to live his dream can take its toll. He lives off money from High Performance Sport New Zealand through their annual allocation to winter sports and a performance enhancement grant. He claims his "credit card gets plenty of use" in a season which extends from October to February. Other innovative means help make ends meet.

"We have a co-operation agreement with the Italian team. I give them coaching help and they provide access to their video technology. I'm used to being on the road but once I've completed 12 years, I'm looking forward to returning to the beach holidays of my childhood."