New Zealand freestyle skier Nico Porteous talks to Sports Journalist Matt Brown about NZ winter and preparing to travel again. Video / NZ Herald
At the age of 16 years and 353 days, Nico Porteous became New Zealand's youngest Olympic medallist, winning bronze in the freeski halfpipe at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
Now 19, Porteous is one of the favourites to win New Zealand's first Winter Olympic gold medal in Beijing next February, alongsidesnowboarder and fellow Olympic bronze medallist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, with alpine skier Alice Robinson also a contender in her specialist giant slalom.
Porteous is the freeski halfpipe world champion, and the X Games freeski superpipe gold medallist, stunning his rivals in Aspen by landing back-to-back 1620s for the first time in competition.
Porteous, who only returned to New Zealand in July, is in the early stages of his preparation for Beijing and has begun snow training at Snowsports NZ's high performance base at Cardrona.
He feels fortunate the level 4 lockdown which kept him off the snow for two and a half weeks hasn't impacted his preparations for the upcoming season.
"It didn't really affect me in the lockdown as I got out of managed isolation and was on a bit of a month off, it just so happened that the day I was meant to start training was the first day at level 2. So, it actually worked out perfect.
"I was able to do some gym stuff during lockdown and it was nice to spend some time with the family - I actually didn't mind it," Porteous said.
Nico Porteous after winning bronze at the 2019 Winter X Games. Photo / Photosport
Porteous and the other New Zealand freeskiers and boarders were able to train at Cardrona into early November last year which helped massively during the first season in the Covid pandemic. He was able to master the 1620 trick without any of his rivals, who would usually train in New Zealand during the northern hemisphere offseason, seeing what he was up to.
The next few weeks will be crucial perfecting his tricks before he leaves for the United States at the start of December, and Porteous realises he will probably have to come up with something special again to stay ahead of his rivals.
"Hopefully I can take advantage of that opportunity in front of me to develop something. You'll just have to see how it goes. I can't promise anything but hopefully it all goes to plan, and I can potentially have a little bit of a secret weapon in my back pocket.
"The plan for the next six weeks is to work on the tricks I already have. Potentially there might be something new in there."
Travelling this year promises to be a much better experience for the young Kiwi who admitted he was terrified when he left the country last year, with Covid rampant in the US.
"Last year I was terrified about going away - when we left the US was getting 300,000 cases a day and that's just the ones who were tested. It was terrifying - I didn't know what Covid was like and I think I will be in much better state of mind leaving this time around."
Nico Porteous in action. Photo / Photosport
Porteous will have a few weeks off the snow in November before he heads to the US which he feels will be important mentally.
"There will just be lots of gym and just general stuff that keeps me mentally healthy, like trying to get out on my mountain bike or hang out with some friends and just really sort of take a breath. It's always good to go into a long season, especially in an Olympic year, feeling mentally healthy and feeling happy about going away. That break in November makes sure that happens."
Porteous acknowledges the Beijing Olympic campaign will be in contrast to PyeongChang where he was able to fly under the radar, but he feels confident he has the mental strength to cope with the pressure.
"I feel grounded, 100 per cent. People obviously do put pressure on you but at the end of the day there's only so much pressure that you put on yourself - so if you don't believe there's any pressure, then there's not pressure. If you let it get to you and you get caught up in your head - which don't get me wrong, is extremely hard to not do - but if you don't let it get to you then you are just free to go and be yourself."
Porteous finished second in the Olympic test event in Beijing in 2019 and while acknowledging it was well in the past, thinks that experience will put him in good stead.
"It does help with the mental preparation of knowing what the venue's like, knowing what China's like, and the culture shock of going to a new country. It's nice to know what's coming."
