News
JANINA KUZMA secures a sixth back to back title in Big Mountain at the VÖLKL NZ FREESKI OPEN! 
23. August 2010
The 2010 Völkl NZ Freeski Open wrapped up in spectacular style today with The North Face Big Mountain competition. Marker Völkl rider Janina Kuzma managed an astonishing sixth consecutive victory in the women’s, while her teammate Fraser McDougall took the third spot on the podium in the men’s.
Initially scheduled for Monday organisers had to push the event back to today due to unfavourable
weather conditions. Treble Cone was the setting for this years Big Mountain competition at the
Völkl NZ Freeski Open, and the Motatapu Chutes, some of the most testing skiing in the area,
provided the athletes with great opportunities to show off their skills. As a three star qualifying
event for the Freeride World Tour and as the biggest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere,
this competition attracts some of the world’s best riders, and this year was no exception. The level
of riding had spectators scrambling to pick their jaws up off the floor, and it was a great showcase
of the unbelievable progression in the Big Mountain discipline.
The biggest news of the day was Janina Kuzma’s 5th successful defence of her title as the New
Zealand Freeski Open Big Mountain champion. There was no doubt she had her work cut out this
time around with a highly competitive field, including Olympian skiercross athlete, Mitchey Greig
vying for the title as well. In the end though the Marker Völkl rider held her nerve. Skiing strongly
from top to bottom in her typically aggressive style, Janina linked two big drops together and
seemed to not even notice the avalanche debris at the bottom of the face as she flew over it to the
finish. Her winning score of 8.65 was enough to separate her from the rest of the field, with Mitchey
Greig and Lorraine Huber rounding off the podium, and this performance once again justified her
starting slot in the main events of the upcoming Freeride World Tour. Janina was happy with her
performance. “It was a great day...all in all it couldn’t have been better. I’m stoked to hold my title
and be six time champion.” With a second place in the halfpipe this has been a great event for
Janina, and she continues to prove herself as one of the most talented freeskiers in the world.
Meanwhile in the men’s event her teammate, Fraser McDougall continued his meteoric rise as a
freeski star with a third place finish. Fraser narrowly lost out to fellow Kiwi, Alex Lynden and
American, B Devine with less than a point separating the top three. The podium was still a great
present one day after his 20th birthday. The North Face Big Mountain competition concluded the
2010 Völkl NZ Freeski Open and there was unanimous agreement that this was a fitting finale to
what has been another spectacular edition of the Southern Hemishpere’s premium freeski event.
For more information, please visit http://nzfreeskiopen.com!
ABOUT: JANINA KUZMA
Looking for a versatile female skier? Then you have to keep your eyes focused on Janina Kuzma,
who is definitely one of the most versatile female riders on our planet. 2009, she won the NZ
Freeski Open in the Halfpipe as well as in the Big Mountain category, the latter one for the fifth
time in a row! Freeriding still might be her strongest discipline as the 25-year-old delivered a series
of top big mountain results last winter finishing fifth in the Freeride World Tour overall standings.
Among other reasons, her top rankings can be ascribed to the fact that Janina is one of the lucky
cast of people who spend the whole year in the snow. Depending on what season, she either lives
in her adopted hometown Wanaka in New Zealand, in Fernie in British Columbia or she is traveling
the world to experience another fascinating mountain region. Her interest in our whole planet dates
back to her childhood days. She was born in Australia, lived in exotic places like Borneo and
learned skiing at the age of five in Austria. The naturalised New Zealander has a twin sister, Maria,
who is one of the world’s best freeride snowboarders. Janina’s biggest goal is still on two boards,
however: the title of the Freeride World champion.
ABOUT: FRASER MCDOUGALL
Fraser McDougall is fast becoming the name on everyone’s lips in the world of Freeride. This 20
year old New Zealand born rider has been skiing since the age of 3 at the infamous clubfields of
his home country, which are still his favourite place to ski. At the age of 12 he moved to Wanaka
where he built the foundations of his skiing career, training to race. At the age of 15 he switched to
freeride and had the opportunity to ski with some of New Zealand’s most famous riders, namely
Hamish Acland, Sam Smoothy and Jossi Wells. Like a lot of Kiwi riders, Fraser now travels to
Europe for the Northern Hemisphere winter and generally hangs out in the Freeride Mecca that is
Verbier. With a first place at the Engadinsnow Invitational 2009 and two podiums already this year
at both the World Heli Challenge and at the Völkl NZ Freeski Open, Fraser is close to realising his
long term ambition of gaining entry to World Tour events. When he’s not skiing Fraser maintains
his adrenalin fuelled lifestyle as a keen wakeboarder, climber and skater. Listing James Bond as
one of his favourite movie characters one could say that Fraser is an example of life imitating art!