Skiing: Skiers' mountain battle for money

Ben Griffin in the Australia New Zealand Cup Mens Super G race at Mt Hutt skifield. Photo / Michael Thomas.

New Zealand's best skier, Ben Griffin, added an important ingredient to his game over the just-completed international season of racing.

The Ohakune racer, who turned 24 two days ago, nailed four of the five Australia-New Zealand Cup titles on offer, including the overall crown, missing out only in the slalom, his least preferred event.

But what the Vancouver Winter Olympian demonstrated was a pleasing degree of progress in terms of consistency.

"In the whole season, Ben just got better and better," Snow Sports New Zealand's alpine director James Lazor said.

Hidden away high in the mountains of the rural South Island, some of the world's best skiers have been in New Zealand for several weeks, training for the coming Northern Hemisphere campaigns, including the world championships at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany in February, and competing in New Zealand's ANC Cup programme.

Griffin and the other leading New Zealanders including Queenstown's Tim Cafe, Christchurch brothers Nick and Jamie Prebble and Queenstown's Adam Barwood, and Whakapapa's Sarah Jarvis and Queenstown's Taylor Rapley - who were the two standouts among the women's contingent - got the chance to test themselves against some of the world's best alpine exponents.

Americans Ted Ligety and Bode Miller are Winter Olympic gold medallists. Miller has more World Cup wins than any American male skier. The Kiwis duelled impressively in elite company.

Griffin's best moment came in a Super G race at Mount Hutt when he finished third behind this year's Super G Olympic champion, and two-time overall World Cup winner, Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal.

It was an outstanding result, the best by a New Zealander since Simon Wi Rutene, 20 years ago. Griffin's world ranking has shot up from 201 to 125. In eight days, he had five placings between third and 10th in ANC Cup races in high quality fields.

"The series gave all our athletes an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best in the world," Lazor said. "Some took good advantage of that to step up to the plate. Ben was a perfect example."

Griffin had a rough time at Vancouver, where he and Cafe, the national slalom champion, were New Zealand's representatives. Griffin did not finish either his giant or Super G event.

"Physically I'm feeling pretty good. Skiing wise, my slalom has come a long way and I want to keep that up. My GS is still consistent but I need to start getting among harder snow conditions to get ready for World and Europa Cups," he said.

First off that means finance. That's a problem.

"Without funding you can't do a proper programme. You can't do what is essential to move forward and try to do really well on the world scene," he said.

His successes this season will get him Europa and Noram Cup (the level below World Cup) starts in the Northern Hemisphere. Griffin is among a large group awaiting the outcome of a Sparc review of winter sports, due out shortly. That will clarify what he needs to fund a campaign.

"My problem is to do what I need to requires a lot more money than I can raise personally. It's just a tough fact of life with professional sport. If you want to be at the top you've got to have big investment."

Lazor, an American who has lived in New Zealand since 2006, estimates the country's leading skiers have to fork out about $45,000 towards a campaign.

"It's been my No 1 concern since I got into the programme. Alpine is very poorly funded, both from overall sponsorship standpoint and a government standpoint.

"Our athletes all pay, and as we go into this Northern Hemisphere season because it's a non-Olympic year it's harder," he said.

He's aiming to talk to potential long term partners, plus see what comes from the Sparc review. The next Olympics are in Sochi, Russia in 2014. He wants Griffin and other potential Olympians to get as much international exposure as possible before then.

Lazor has one other hope out of Griffin's success. "It shows other Kiwi athletes that it can be done ... what you can accomplish with consistent hard work."

- Griffin and Jarvis also won the Jucy New Zealand alpine cups to emphasise their domestic standing in the sport.

LINE HONOURS

How the international season at Coronet Peak and Mt Hutt panned out

* Men: Ohakune's Ben Griffin won the men's overall, Super G, super combined and giant slalom crowns. The only one to escape his grasp was the slalom, won by Australian Mike Rishworth.

* Women: Honours even. Sarah Jarvis of Whakapapa won the overall title and the giant slalom; Queenstown's Taylor Rapley bagged the Super G and super combined, with the slalom going to Australian Emily Bamford.