Cardrona camp trains young Para snow athletes on and off the snow

Nine emerging Para snow sports athletes spent four days at Cardrona, learning skills on the snow and in workshops about high-performance sport.

The Para alpine skiing and Para snowboard Development Camp ran from 6 to 9 October. It brought together eight emerging Para alpine skiers and one Para snowboard athlete, aged between 11 and 31.

Jane Stevens, Snow Sports NZ Para High Performance Programme & Pathway Manager, led the camp. She described it as the best she had ever been involved in, and she has more than three decades of experience in adaptive skiing.

The camp had support from a Paralympics New Zealand grant. According to Stevens, its biggest strength was a holistic approach that looked beyond on-snow performance to the many elements needed to succeed in elite sport.

What the camp covered

On-snow sessions mixed coaching with chances to train through the gates. Sam Lynch, the current Snow Sports NZ Para Lead Coach, shared his expertise alongside former incumbent Daniel Bogue.

Away from the slopes, specialists led workshops on nutrition, strength and conditioning, sports psychology and athlete life.

Parents, caregivers and other significant support people attended too, so the benefits reached beyond the athletes. Stevens believes this helped families understand the high-performance pathway and the support it requires.

Three coaches were also invited. They received an introduction to Para snow sports and the chance to build the knowledge and capability to support the next generation of athletes.

Paralympians on the hill

Three leading New Zealand Para snow sports athletes also took part: Adam Hall PLY MNZM, Corey Peters MNZM and Carl Murphy PLY. Hall and Peters have won ten Paralympic Games medals between them, and Murphy was the first athlete to represent the NZ Paralympic Team in Para snowboard.

Stevens credited the three with real star power and thanked them for giving their time. In her view, the younger children in particular were captivated by them.

What comes next

The Cardrona camp is only the start. Four of the athletes are set to join a follow-up camp at Winter Park, Colorado, next February, led by Sam Lynch.

That camp will build on what the athletes learned at Cardrona. It aims to deepen their understanding of the high-performance pathway and prepare them for the next stage of their sporting journeys.

Stevens sees the camp as a step towards turning grassroots participation into a pathway to future Paralympic success. The programme has a longer-term focus on the Utah 2034 Paralympic Winter Games.