Ben Sandford (born 12 March 1979 in

Rotorua Rotorua () is a city in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand's North Island. It is sited on the southern shores of Lake Rotorua, from which it takes its name. It is the seat of the Rotorua Lakes District, a territorial authorities of New Zea ...

) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

skeleton racer who has competed since 2002. He finished tenth in the men's skeleton event at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. He finished 11th at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

Early life

Sandford was born and raised in Rotorua, attending Rotorua Boys' High School. He later attended the Victoria University of Wellington, where he graduated with bachelor's degrees in law and geography in 2002.

Sport career

Sandford's best finish at the

FIBT World Championships The IBSF World Championships (known as the FIBT World Championships until 2015), part of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, have taken place on an annual basis since FIBT World Championships 1930, 1930. Starting with 2002, no Wo ...

was 3rd in the men's skeleton event at Lake Placid in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. With his bronze medal, Ben became the second person from the Southern Hemisphere to medal at the

, after his uncle Bruce Sandford who won gold in the same event in

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. Due to his natural sporting talent, Sandford's introduction to Skeleton came after he led a Squash team representing

Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...

to an International University Squash Tournament held in Austria in 2002. The skeleton track was close to the host centre and Ben thought he would "give it a go." He has served as an athlete representative to the

New Zealand Olympic Committee The New Zealand Olympic Committee (before 1994, The ''New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association'') is both the National Olympic Committee and the Commonwealth Games Association in New Zealand responsible for selecting athletes to re ...

since 2008 and the

World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; , AMA) is an international organization co-founded by the governments of over 140 nations along with the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against d ...

since 2012. At the 2014 Congress of the Federation Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobagganing Sandford was elected as the federation's vice president for Legal Affairs, becoming the first person from Oceania to be elected to the FIBT's executive committee.

Political career

Sandford was the

New Zealand Labour Party The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour (), is a Centre-left politics, centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descri ...

's candidate for

at the 2017 general election. Sandford was also ranked 57 on Labour's party list for the election. Sanford came second place to

National Party National Party or Nationalist Party may refer to: Active parties * National Party of Australia, commonly known as ''The Nationals'' * Bangladesh: ** Bangladesh Nationalist Party ** Jatiya Party (Ershad) a.k.a. ''National Party (Ershad)'' * Californ ...

Member of Parliament

Todd McClay Todd Michael McClay (born 22 November 1968) is a New Zealand politician and former ambassador. He is the Member of Parliament for Rotorua. He was previously an ambassador for the Cook Islands and Niue to the European Union. Early life McClay ...

, who won by a margin of 10,887 votes. In July 2022, Sandford announced he would contest the 2022 Rotorua mayoral election. He came second to

Tania Tapsell Tania Tapsell (born 22 September 1992) is a New Zealand politician. She has served on the Rotorua Lakes District Council since 2013 and was elected mayor of Rotorua at the 2022 local elections. She is the first woman of Māori descent to hol ...

, losing by a margin of almost 3,300 votes. On 24 February 2023, it was announced that Sandford would contest Rotorua for Labour again in the 2023 general election. Sandford came second place to the incumbent McClay, who won by a margin of 8,923 votes.

References

Other sources

2006 men's skeleton results (todor66.com)
* *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandford, Ben 1979 births Living people New Zealand male skeleton racers Olympic skeleton racers for New Zealand Skeleton racers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Skeleton racers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Rotorua World Anti-Doping Agency members New Zealand Labour Party politicians New Zealand sportsperson-politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election Unsuccessful candidates in the 2023 New Zealand general election 20th-century New Zealand people 21st-century New Zealand people People educated at Rotorua Boys' High School