Paralympians Selected For 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games
Tuesday 22 September 2009, 8:02PM
By Dave Worsley
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The New Zealand team for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympic Games has been confirmed with two athletes making the journey to the Canadian west coast city in March next year.
Adam Hall, 21 from Outram, Otago competes with spina bifida and is a real medal prospect given that over the past 12 months he has accumulated 13 medals, including silver and bronze at the International Paralympic Committee World Cup finals series and a silver at the World Championships.
Hall has previously represented New Zealand at the 2006 Winter Paralympic Games in Turin, Italy when he was still attending Taieri College. Hall will compete in the Slalom, Super G, and Giant Slalom.
Hall was ranked at No2 in the world at the beginning of 2009 for adaptive slalom skiing and has been the recipient of the New Zealand Snowsports Athlete of the Year 2008 - 2009.
Peter Williams, 24 from Auckland also has spina bifida and will compete in the Slalom and Giant Slalom. He first learnt to ski on his feet but, for the last 13 years, has used a monoski
“The winter Paralympics have always been a goal of mine and for the last four and half years I’ve been working my butt off to ensure I got there. Now the time has come, obviously I’m really excited to be part of the team and all that hard work is beginning to pay off,” says Williams who will be experiencing his first Paralympics.
New Zealand has got a proud history of success in Paralympic sport in both summer and winter games. We may not be sending a big team to the 2010 Vancouver Paralympic Games, but we are sending a quality team.
Both athletes have demonstrated a high level of performance at the recent 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games and this bodes well for the Paralympic Games in six months time,” says Fiona Pickering, Paralympics New Zealand CEO.
New Zealand Academy of Sport – Winter Performance Programme Manager, Jon Turnbull (Wanaka) is the Chef de Mission in charge of leading the team through its build up and performance in the games itself.
“Adam has had a great training season spending quality time with top international teams training in Central Otago and Canterbury. Peter has recently had two very good performances in Slalom and Giant Slalom at the inaugural 100% Pure New Zealand Winter Games in August.
Myself and the support team (coach Hiro Tanaguichi of Winter Park, Colorado and physio Andrew Duff of Wanaka) are working hard to ensure both athletes have the best build up to ensure they are in top form come Games time in March,” says Turnbull.