The Central Otago paddler surprised himself by winning two medals at the first round of the canoe slalom world cup series in Germany at the weekend.
Butcher claimed silver in the K1 slalom and added bronze in the kayak cross on the Augsburg whitewater.
It was the best finish in a slalom world cup by a New Zealand male paddler in the history of the series, and bronze in kayak cross followed Butcher’s silver in the chaotic discipline three years ago.
"It’s been a pretty crazy weekend, actually," Butcher told the Otago Daily Times.
"We are kind of testing a few things for the build-up to Paris and not really aiming for results in the world cup but just trying to test a few things and make sure we get our preparation nailed.
"Paris is obviously the main target. But at the same time, everyone is racing these events and wants to win them, so to get on the box a couple of times was pretty cool."
Action in the Augsburg world cup weekend started with the traditional slalom.
Butcher completed a decent run with no major mistakes but only qualified 10th for the final, which meant he went away first.
"I put down a solid run but hit the last gate, which was a bit stupid of me. I thought I’d blown any chance of a real good result."
He had to wait in the area they call the "kiss and cry" zone to watch the other paddlers complete their runs, and to his shock, only one went better than him.
"Everyone kept making mistakes and falling behind me. It was pretty unreal to get silver."
A day later, Butcher battled through the combative kayak cross to claim bronze.
"Two medals for the weekend kind of broke all my expectations."
Butcher, who has been based in France for about seven weeks, is now in Prague for the second round of the world cup this weekend — competing only in slalom — and will compete in the third and final series in Krakow a week later.
Then it is back to Paris to settle in for the countdown to the Olympic Games.
