ALICE ROBINSON
For a girl who loves winning Alice sure has a lot of fun doing it. This Queenstown ski racing prodigy tempers her fierce competitive spirit with a mellow, laid back and always mischevious attitude to life off the race course. But when she steps into her skis she trains harder and focuses on racing with an intensity that most athletes twice her age would find daunting.
She divides her on snow time between her home mountain, Coronet Peak in Queenstown, New Zealand and California, USA. For someone as young as Alice her's is a life less ordinary, and it is lived to the maximum. The results she has delivered around the globe so far are starting to set the bar a little higher for her opposition.
She has been New Zealand National champion in her age group for 3 winters straight. 2015 saw her start to really dominate race courses on both sides of the Pacific. Two gold medals at the Whistler Cup in Canada, she was Far West u14 Champion in the USA before heading back to NZ for another National Championship title.
The 2015/2016 winter ended on a high for a girl determined to make her mark in her first year of "U16" racing (she was only 14). Being crowned overall u16 Champion in the Western Region, USA set her up for a brilliant finish to the season two weeks later. At the USSA u16 National Championships at Snowbird in Utah she skied into 2nd place in the Super G Championship and won the USA Giant Slalom Championship.
The 2016 winter in New Zealand consolidated Alice's dominance in the U16 category in her last NZ season of Youth racing. NZ Youth Series winner and National Champion in GS and Super G to add to the U16 USA GS Champion's crown.
Alice headed back to the USA and kept busy winning races on her way to Europe for a race campaign that took her to some of the world's toughest youth race events against the best U16 skiers in the world. An emphatic win in GS at Pokal Loka in Slovenia, arguably the world's premier youth race, was both the high point and the end of her youth racing career.
2017, her first year in FIS racing, started with a bang in New Zealand at the Cardrona FIS Tech series. Alice was third in her very first adult race, at the tender age of 15, and the next day she smashed out a 18.8 FIS point result with a win in her second ever FIS race. She followed this up a week later by winning the New Zealand Slalom and Giant Slalom Championship crowns. She's racing the grown ups now and my guess is if they're not worried yet they soon will be.
Alice finished 2017 on a high with a Nor-Am Cup GS victory in Panorama, Canada. Her selection for The FIS World Junior Ski Championships and that sporting pinnacle, the Olympic Games started 2018 at a whole knew level for the girl who had turned 16 the month before. At the 2018 Australia New Zealand Cup Alice nailed down a 6 point result and the Giant Slalom win.
With a base in Italy and her first Olympics, Junior World Championships, and World Cup races under her belt Alice was looking to consolidate and deliver some solid results this 2018/19 winter season.
The young New Zealander did more than consolidate and she certainly delivered.
In February 2019 Alice made her mark in the ultra competitive Europa Cup Series and nailed down her first GS race win at Berchtesgaden, Germany. Five days later she went on to a 17th place Giant Slalom finish at the 2019 FIS World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden. Sitting in 30th place after the first run Alice left everything on the hill to set the fastest time in the second run jumping a whopping 13 places to her final result.
Straight onto a plane heading for the 2019 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Italy where Alice powered to an emphatic win in the Giant Slalom.
2019 WORLD JUNIOR GS CHAMPION!
The Junior World Champion status handed Alice an entry into the 2019 FIS World Cup finals in Andorra. The last start position meant she had some work to do but it took only the first race run to climb into 3rd position. A thrilling second run and Alice nailed down a 2nd place silver medal finish! An extraordinary end to a season punctuated with career firsts.
ALICE WEARS:
Alice is at the beginning of something really big; her life. Buckle up and hold on. If you've got anything to do with Alice Robinson it'll be fast and you won't stop smiling.
Her favorite One Studio gear: “My New Zealand koru race suit, I designed it, it represents my country, it looks and feels good, its unique and cool."
Is it good to have input into the design of your competition clothing?:
"I like that I have had input into my designs because I can choose what I really like to be wearing when I represent my country. I have input into the shape and form. It's especially great to be the only one wearing it."
Favourite place to ski and why: “I love to ski in California, it's always sunny and the training and racing there is so good.”
Who inspires you: “My parents.”
"You guys at One Studio make the best race gear in the world."
Thanks Alice we're trying to keep up.