Kiwi Olympic skier Ben Griffin says New Zealand's chances of downhill skiers competing at the next Winter Olympics may be slim if national sports funding bodies like Sparc don't get behind the sport.
Griffin, 24, was the highest-finishing Kiwi at the New Zealand Winter Games men's alpine giant slalom at Coronet Peak yesterday, finishing 24th.
The three-time national giant slalom and super G champion said it seems Sparc "doesn't want a bar of skiing," while corporate sponsorship is proving harder to find, thanks to tough recent economic conditions.
"It will be touch and go if funding's not there," Griffin said. "Sparc doesn't really want a bar of skiing at all. Even if we had a skier in the top 50, I don't think that would change." Ohakune-raised Griffin, who now bases himself in Queenstown, said without funding and support it is incredibly difficult for athletes from small countries like New Zealand to compete against the well-resourced big guns of world skiing.
"If you look at the numbers, there's not many of us Kiwis at the top there," he said. "But when you think of who we're up against, top 30 guys constantly, it's going to be tough. We want to prove ourselves."
Griffin, whose highest world ranking was 123rd earlier this year, competed in the giant slalom and super G at the Vancouver Winter Olympics last year, but crashed out in both qualifying runs.
He has endured a tough 2011, badly injuring his right hand and shoulder in a bad fall while competing in German national championships in early March. He spent nearly four months off the slopes. Yesterday's two runs were important for him, and he was far from satisfied with how he finished. "In terms of time, I'm happy with how I went but I wasn't really stoked with my runs in general," he said.
"When I first went out I took it pretty straight, so I could have been a lot more aggressive. It was pretty clean up there snow-wise first up, then the second run [on a different course] was tougher."
Fellow Vancouver athlete Tim Cafe also made the giant slalom final, but finished 39th. Both will compete in the super G at Mt Hutt on Saturday. American veteran Warner Nickerson, 30, won, with Austrian Marcel Mathis and fellow American Colby Granstrom second and third.