Young Ruby Fullerton had a great excuse for missing the first day of school as she was in transit travelling back from Europe where she competed in the Alpe Cimbra FIS Children's Cup.

Following The Snowvision NZ Alpine Youth Championships and Selection Camp, Snow Sports NZ selected Ruby Fullerton as first seed in the Under 14 Girls category for the Snowvision NZ Alpine Youth Squad.

There are numerous international races that the NZ Alpine Youth Squad members can attend and as the first seed Ruby gets to choose which ones she would like to compete in.

The most competitive one she has faced so far was the Alpe Cimbra FIS Children's Cup held over four days in Folgaria, Italy.  It was a tough, steep and icy course with some very talented European athletes. There were 38 different countries in attendance. Ruby came 39th in the Giant Slalom and 32nd in the Slalom.

To prepare for these international events, Ruby trains on snow 120 + days a year and also does dry land training such as olympic weight lifting, strength, agility and power exercises when she is on and not on the snow. Due to our short NZ winter, Ruby needs regular overseas trips to find enough snow days. Prior to the race in Italy she spent three weeks training in Austria with International Racer and during New Zealand's off season last year Ruby spent time on the slopes in Japan.

As well as settling into Nayland College as one of our new Year 9 students, Ruby also has her sights set on preparing for the Whistler Cup in April, one of the largest and most important ski races in the world for athletes aged 12-15 years. The Whistler Cup is held in Whistler, Canada on two side-by-side mountains 'Whistler' and 'Blackcomb' which offer over 200 marked runs, 8,171 acres of terrain, 16 alpine bowls, and 3 glaciers combined. Past events have seen over 20 countries represented by 400 racers, 150 coaches and 300 volunteers. 

It will be Ruby's second time competing in the Whistler Cup and she's hoping to improve on last year's results where she placed 17th in the Giant Slalom and 44th in the slalom out of 144 competitors as a first year Under 14.