New Zealand named the 2010 Olympic Team, consisting of 10 athletes across five sports. The snowboard team has not been named yet.
Ben Koons (MWSC) of Maine, has officially been named to the cross-country team, along with Katie Calder.
Koons was considered a sure thing, but yesterday’s announcement makes it official.
New Zealand Olympic Selector and Secretary General Barry Maister also welcomed the athletes to the team and said that strategies around high performance in Winter Sport are paying off. “There has been an increased focus on Winter Sports in New Zealand and the NZOC has supported this with the distribution of Olympic Solidarity scholarships to the athletes to the value of $330,000, seed funding of the 2009 Winter Games NZ and ongoing financial support for the Winter Performance Programme (WPP). We’re positive that the combined efforts of the NZOC, NZAS, SPARC and the WPP will lead to improved Olympic performances at Vancouver and then on to Sochi 2014. ”
Of the 1111 named New Zealand Olympians fewer than 7% have earned this coveted title at winter games.
![Ben Koons (Dartmouth College) - 1st place.](http://images.fasterskier.com/2009/12/SMF0056.jpg" "Ben Koons (Dartmouth College) - 1st place.")
