Thirty-one finalists across six categories representing a variety of sports were nominated for the awards, based on results during the 2016 sporting year.
Last year Wells was named Snow Sports NZ freeskier of the year and overall athlete of the year, won an X-Games gold medal in Aspen — taking his medal tally at the event to six — won a bronze medal at an Olympic qualifying event in South Korea and came fourth in the Dew Tour slopestyle in the United States in December.
Triathlete Nicky Samuels, also of Wanaka, was named senior sportswoman, having come back strongly last year after spending 2015 sidelined by injuries.
After being selected for the Olympics for a second time, Samuels finished 13th in Rio, more than 20 places ahead of her London Olympics result.
Fellow Wanaka resident Finn Bilous, a freeskier, was named junior sportsman, having made New Zealand sporting history last year.
Bilous (17) won New Zealand’s first medal at a Winter Youth Olympics, coming home with a silver and a bronze, and went on to win gold at the Ruopa Cup, two golds at the USASA Championships and a silver at the Cardrona Games.
He was named winner of the 2016 Snow Sports NZ breakthrough season award and was a finalist for the Emerging Talent Awards at the Halberg Awards.
Queenstown skier Alice Robinson (16) won the junior sportswoman title after some impressive results last year.
Robinson started her year with a top 10 finish in Italy before going on to add the USSA western regional finals under-16 title to her belt and then a giant slalom gold and Super G silver at the US Natioanl finals.
She also claimed the under-16 Youth National Series title for the second year in a row.
2016 New Zealand Ice Hockey League champions the Southern Stampede was named team of the year after its back-to-back championship win.
The team won 12 of its 16 games last season before thrashing Canterbury in the home-and-away final series.
Wanaka snowboard coach Sean Thompson was named coach of the year.
Thompson, who was also named Snow Sports NZ coach of the year, coached junior stars Carlos Garcia Knight and Christy Prior, who had both had top results on the international stage.
The John Fitzharris Services to Sport Award was given to Wanaka yachting stalwart Steve Dickey for his contribution to the administration and daily operation of the Wanaka Yacht Club for the past decade.
