Snow sports: Mount teenagers board Olympic train

Life's supposed to be tough when you're 16 - a bumbling, awkward period of change and uncertainty. Which doesn't really explain how Mount Maunganui teenager Kendall Brown was lying on a beach in Portugal last week, and will be strapping on boots and bindings at her first Olympic Games next week.

The brilliant young snowboarder will become New Zealand's youngest winter Olympian in four decades when she hits the halfpipe at the Bardonecchia venue in Italy on February 12. Less than a year after making her senior debut in the sport, the current world junior champion will hit the purpose-built chute of icy snow, after a week's break in Portugal, where she caught up with some surfing.

The best thing about Kendall Brown is that she is part of a package deal. Older brother Mitchell, 18, will become New Zealand's first male Olympic snowboarder when he also takes part in the halfpipe.

"I'm so ecstatic - I'm really pumped that both Mitch and I will be there competing and supporting each other," Kendall said. "It's awesome that I'm one of the youngest there - it will be good to be around some of the older guys on the team and learn from them."

The Brown siblings and Wanaka woman Juliane Bray form New Zealand's biggest-ever Olympic snowboarding team in the biggest-ever Winter Olympics team from this country.

It's a significant achievement considering the only other Kiwi boarder at that level was Pamela Bell in Nagano in 1998, the first year the sport was introduced to the Games. Not surprisingly, New Zealand Snowboarding Association boss Graham Dunbar is delighted.

"It's kind of like a coming of age," Dunbar said. "We had Pam, who really worked hard on her own, but at the last Olympics we had a couple of riders who only just missed out, including Juliane Bray.

"We kind of got robbed at Salt Lake City so this is definitely a milestone for us, and it's massive."

What's exciting Dunbar so much is that, while halfpipe and snowboarder cross specialist Bray is 31, the Browns represent a dynamic new generation of hot young rippers who specialise in tearing snow-covered mountains to pieces.

 

New Zealand's youngest winter Olympian was Alpine skiier Cecilia Womersley, who went to the Squaw Valley games in 1960 aged 16 years and six months. Brown is only a month older.

Coached by former top UK professional Tom Willmott, the Browns have been based in Wanaka every winter since moving to the Bay of Plenty from Dunedin eight years ago.

Although Mitchell won the world halfpipe champs in 2004, and Kendall followed a year later, it was only in August last year that a serious crack at the Olympics became a reality.

Kendall was the top Kiwi in the New Zealand Open, finishing sixth behind eventual winner Hannah Teter of the United States, while Mitchell was the only New Zealander to qualify for the men's final and finished 10th of 12.

Jetting to a world cup event in Chile a month later, the pair stunned observers by accumulating enough ranking points to qualify for the Olympics. Needing top-25 finishes in Chile, Mitchell crashed on his first run but finished 21st in his second run, while Kendall finished 12th and 10th in her two runs.

Last month in Leysin, Switzerland, Mitchell just missed a place in the final world cup event before the Olympics, placing a career-best 14th, while Kendall finished fourth in her division.

Snowboarding's halfpipe competition is all about big airs, clean riding and outlandish tricks. A fast-ascending pirouette with a minimum of fuss can be enough to sway the judges.

NZ Winter Olympics team

Curling: Sean Becker, Lorne de Pape, Hans Frauenlob, Dan Mustapic, Warren Dobson. Alpine Skiing: Mickey Ross (slalom), Nicola Campbell (giant slalom, super G), Erika McLeod (giant slalom).

Snowboarding: Juliane Bray (halfpipe, snowboarder cross), Kendall Brown (halfpipe), Mitchell Brown (halfpipe).

Skeleton: Ben Sandford, Louise Corcoran. Bobsleigh: Alan Henderson, Matt Dallow, Stephen Harrison, Aaron Orangi, Angus Ross.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES