Alice Robinson

Alice Robinson (born 1 December 2001) is a New Zealand World Cup alpine ski racer. At age sixteen, she competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics, in giant slalom and slalom. She represented New Zealand in the giant slalom event at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Early life

Robinson was born in Sydney, Australia, the second of three children of Sarah and David Robinson. Her parents moved to Queenstown permanently when Robinson was four. She started her ski racing career at Coronet Peak with the Queenstown Alpine Ski Team and also trained in California, United States, with the Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy based in Tahoe City during the northern hemisphere winter. From 2016 to 2019, Robinson was coached predominately by former New Zealand Olympian Tim Cafe. She attended Wakatipu High School in Queenstown.

Robinson won the under-14 and under-16 New Zealand titles before beginning her international career. She won the girls’ U14 giant slalom and parallel slalom in April 2015 in Canada at the Whistler Cup, one of the largest and most important junior ski races on the international calendar. and in 2017 she won the U16 giant slalom and finished second in slalom at ‘Pokal Loka in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Robinson also won the USSA U16 national championship giant slalom at Snowbird, Utah, and was runner-up in the super-G.

2018 season

Robinson was third in her debut FIS race on 30 July 2017 at Cardrona, then won the giant slalom the next day.

On 10 August, fifteen-year-old Robinson won the New Zealand Alpine National Championships for slalom and giant slalom at Coronet Peak. On 16 December, she won her first North America Cup (NorAm) giant slalom race at Panorama, Canada. Her 8.70 FIS point result is the best any New Zealand skier has achieved in their first year of senior competition. Robinson made her World Cup debut on 6 January 2018, in giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She was 42nd and missed the cut to qualify for a second run by less than a second. Three days later, she won a FIS giant slalom race in Gaal, Austria, in which she scored 11.90 FIS points, ranking her inside the top 70 in the world at the time.

On 28 January 2018, Robinson was selected to the New Zealand team for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games, alongside alpine racers Adam Barwood and Willis Feasey. She became New Zealand's youngest-ever Winter Olympian at 16 years and 70 days when the games began. At the Olympics, Robinson was coached by former alpine Olympians Tim Cafe and Ben Griffin. She finished 35th (of 81) in the giant slalom, the best result for a New Zealander in giant slalom at the Olympics in 38 years since Fiona Johnson and Anna Archibald were 30th and 32nd in 1980 at Lake Placid, New York. She failed to finish the first run of the slalom event.

2019 season

On 27 August 2018, Robinson won the Audi Quattro Winter Games NZ FIS Australia New Zealand Cup (ANC) Giant slalom. On 5 September 2018 she won the New Zealand Alpine National Championships for Super-G, as well as two Australia New Zealand Cup Super-G races, held at Mt Hutt.

At the World Cup giant slalom on 2 February 2019 at Maribor, Slovenia, Robinson was in 25th place after the first run, becoming the first New Zealander to qualify for the second run (the top 30 racers qualify for a second run), but failed to finish. On 9 February, at aged 17, she won the European Cup Giant slalom in Berchtesgaden, Germany, becoming the first New Zealand athlete to do so since Claudia Riegler in 2001.

At the World Championships at Åre in Sweden in February, at age 17, she won the U21 category and was 17th in the giant slalom, having the fastest time in the second run. This was the best result for a New Zealand alpine ski racer since Claudia Riegler and Annelise Coberger.

Less than a week later, at the Junior World Championships in Val di Fassa, Italy, Robinson won the giant slalom by more than a second, becoming the first New Zealander to win a gold medal in the 38-year history of the Junior World Championships. She also finished in 15th-place finish in the super-G.

At the World Cup giant slalom on 8 March in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, Robinson was 16th in a 70-strong field earned fifteen World Cup points, the first in her career. On 2 March, at the European Cup finals super-G in Sella Nevea, Italy, she was the runner-up, 0.12 seconds back.

Five days later, Robinson competed at the World Cup finals giant slalom held in Grandvalira Soldeu, Andorra. She earned a berth in the event with her victory at the Junior World Championships the month prior. At age 17, she made her first World Cup podium and finished second, 0.30 seconds behind Mikaela Shiffrin. It was the first World Cup podium for New Zealand in over sixteen years, since Riegler took third in slalom in December 2002.

Robinson was named the Otago Junior Sportswoman of the Year at the 2019 Otago Sports Awards. Her coach, Tim Cafe, was also named the Otago Coach of the Year.

On 24 June, it was announced that Robinson was splitting from Tim Cafe, who coached her for the previous eight years, citing a need for World Cup-level coaching. Chris Knight and Jeff Fergus formed the International Ski Racing Academy in 2018 and are now Robinson's full-time coaches. Knight and Fergus previously coached the United States women's team, which included four-time overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn.

2020 season

Robinson began the 2020 season ranked a career-best tenth in the world in giant slalom. She won both the giant slalom and the slalom at the 2019 New Zealand Alpine National Championships. On 28 August, Robinson won two Australia New Zealand Cup (ANC) super-G races held at Coronet Peak. These results mean she holds the yellow super-G ANC bib for the 2020 Northern Hemisphere race season.  On 30 August, Robinson finished second in an ANC giant slalom race and was awarded the Janey Blair Memorial Trophy for being the fastest finishing New Zealand female. On 28 September, Robinson won the New Zealand Alpine ski racer athlete of the year award at Snow Sports New Zealand awards.

On 26 October 2019, Robinson gained her first World Cup win on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria, 0.06 seconds ahead of runner-up Shiffrin. This was the first World Cup victory in any discipline for a New Zealander in over 22 years, since Claudia Riegler in February 1997, and the first-ever in women's giant slalom. She also became the youngest woman from any nation to win at Sölden. It was later revealed that she won while suffering from bone bruising to the knee following a training crash. On 7 November, Robinson announced that this injury would prevent her from starting the next GS race in Killington, Vermont; she recovered faster than expected, started the event but crashed in the opening run.

Robinson got her second World Cup victory on 15 February 2020, besting runner-up Petra Vlhová by 0.34 seconds in a giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. She became the first teenager in 32 years to win multiple giant slaloms in a single World Cup season, last done by Mateja Svet in  1988. On 18 February, Robinson became the joint world number one ranked skier in women's giant slalom, alongside Federica Brignone, Shiffrin, and Vlhova. She is the first New Zealander to achieve this feat in any discipline. On 8 March, Robinson was fourth in super-G at the Junior World Championships at Narvik, Norway.

Robinson won the Sky Sport Emerging Talent Award at the 2019 Halberg Awards. For the second year in a row Robinson was named the Mercy Hospital Junior Sports Woman of the Year at the 2020 ASB Otago Sports Awards ahead of snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.

World Cup results

Season standings

:

Race podiums

* 3 wins – (3 GS)
* 6 podiums – (6 GS); 21 top tens (17 GS, 4 SG)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Alice
2001 births
Living people
New Zealand female alpine skiers
Olympic alpine skiers for New Zealand
Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2022 Winter Olympics
Skiers from Sydney
Australian people of New Zealand descent
People educated at Wakatipu High School
21st-century New Zealand women