Winter Olympics: Kiwi team brush up on mental skills

Jossi Wells is a rare Winter Olympics medal prospect for New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images

Performance on demand remains the biggest obstacle for 14 of the 15-strong New Zealand team when the Winter Olympics start on February 7 in Sochi. Weather, unless you're indoor long-track speed skater Shane Dobbin, inevitably plays a disruptive role at some stage, forcing competitors on and off the mountain.

Hence the New Zealand outdoor contingent, made up of six freeskiers, five snowboarders, two skeleton racers and one slalom skier, are brushing up on their mental skills so they switch on immediately once the snowflakes, rain or fog relent.

Jossi Wells is considered a rare medal hope to match New Zealand's solitary silver secured by Annelise Coberger in the slalom at Albertville in 1992. He will compete in the new Olympic events, freeski slopestyle and halfpipe, disciplines where podium personnel change regularly in international competition.

"We contest our events a lot of the time in bad weather, it depends how you adapt," Wells says. "If conditions are gnarly, it's up to me to get through it.

"It's not like the 100m. Well, it is, but only if you add in a tight rope. The risk is higher and sometimes you're going to fall off. It's skill-based whereas in the 100m you're pushing your body to its limits.

"What I need to remember is that no one tells me how to ski, I choose myself. I give it my own personal flair to make it work."

Despite a nagging heel injury, the 23-year-old recently won slopestyle gold at the FIS World Cup in Gstaad, Switzerland. The win was his first at a World Cup and secured New Zealand an extra Games quota spot.

Wells checked out Sochi last February before the test event and will attend the Games with brothers Byron (halfpipe) and Beau-James (halfpipe and slopestyle). Three siblings have never been selected in a New Zealand Olympic team before. Father Bruce will also attend as coach. At 15, youngest brother Jackson is ineligible for selection but is considered a future prospect. Trampolining and rock climbing are understood to have been elements which led to the family's alpine success.

"We travel together a lot, skiing on a daily basis," Wells says. "We're really close so when we ride there is a camaraderie which you can only get as brothers. We help push each other, which makes for a good support system."

Mental skills specialist Pete Sanford will be travelling with the New Zealand team to Sochi. He tells athletes to be prepared for anything in such an open environment: "The snow can be packed in harder which changes the composition of a run but they're elements which are out of your control. Technique is the key and how you execute processes and plans.

"Getting athletes to connect with the present is the key. That can be achieved through a variety of skills: imagery, self-talk and a clear routine with no reference to the past or future."

Sanford also looks out for what he terms "the Games wobbles", where athletes get overawed by the Olympic environment.

"We work on reminding athletes what worked in the past. Yes, it's a different environment living in a village and dealing with increased security but the halfpipe is still 22-feet [deep], the degree of slope is the same, you're still skiing on snow where you can execute the same tricks. Weather halts are part of the sport. You won't get a re-run unless it turns really bad."