Year 9 student Ruby Fullerton is in for a busy winter. Already a champion skier, currently ranked number one nationally in the U14 bracket, she will be spending the winter in Methven to train on Mt Hutt ski field.

Ruby competes in a number of events: the slalom, the giant slalom and the super giant slalom.

To remain competitive, Ruby needs to train on snow 120 days a year to compliment her dry land training. Previously she has spent time training and racing in Austria, Germany, Italy and Japan, but with international travel not an option at the moment, Methven was the next best choice.

Ruby explained that the training would be very arduous. “Each day I will be training, I’ll be training for about six hours. There is a gym in Methven so I’ll be doing gym stuff after my ski training as well,” she said. “I do get quite sore and tired.” Every seventh day is a rest and recovery day and then next day she is back on the slopes.

Ruby, who turned 14 in April, will need to train hard as she now has to prove herself in a whole new age bracket, the U16s, where she will be racing much older students.

While training so hard at a young age is quite a lot to take on, it will hopefully be a stepping stone as Ruby tries to take her chosen sport to the top.

“I want to go to the Olympics,” she said.