Olympic Skiers Will Go For 10 Weeks

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31375, 22 May 1967, Page 16

Olympic Skiers Will Go For 10 Weeks

The Intention was to take the 1968 Winter Olympic Games team for 10 weeks and compete on the European circuit before the games at Grenoble, said Mr S. J. Blakely (Auckland), a member of the New Zealand Ski Council, at the fourteenth annual meeting of the New Zealand Ski Associatioh in Christchurch on Saturday. Mr Blakely has been appointed team manager. "This will give them controlled and intensive racing,” he said. “We know that our standard is such that we cannot hope for any medals, but the decision to send a team will provide incentives to ski racers this year. “If we know someone will not come back and put something into the sport this will mitigate against their selection.” Mr Blakely said the selec-

tion would be open to all New Zealand skiers whether racing in New Zealand or overseas. “The reason the council has supported Grenoble is that we do have a team fund/' said Mr A. J. Cooper (Auckland), the association president. New Zealand could expect to do well. An Australian had finished forty-first at the World Ski-ing Championships in Chile, and this had caused New Zealand to raise its sights, he said. After a report on the move to discontinue New Zealand Ski Association and Federated Mountain Club joint representation on the National Parks Authority and National Park Boards, the following motion was carried without dissent: — “That this association strenuously opposes the proposal to remove F.M.C. and N.Z.S.A. nominations on the National Parks Authority and Boards and that this association fully supports the stand of F.M.C. on this question.”