Winter Games

Nathan Johnstone, of Australia, the competition favourtie, failed to retain his world No 1 ranking at yesterday's LG Snowboard FIS World Cup halfpipe finals, as Janne Korpi, of Finland, scored 93 points out of 100 to take the gold.

Double world champion Irene Schori is known as the grunter. She lets out a loud groan when she follows her stone down the ice.

He has won two Olympic medals, competed in countless skiing world cups, been a professional in his field for over 10 years and travelled the globe, but for Winter Games competitor Rainer Schoenfelder, Queenstown's beauty rates as high as any of it.

New Zealand Olympic Committee president Mike Stanley says the Winter Games are playing a major role in the development of the country's winter athletes.

Hungarian curlers Gyorgy Nagy and Ildiko Szekeres have combined the Winter Games with a family holiday to New Zealand.

Adaptive giant slalom athlete Ian Bishop is but one Winter Games competitor with a story to tell. However, his is a unique one - he is a "sit-ski" racer who lost both legs on service in Afghanistan.

It was a surprise when the Chinese mixed doubles combination of Liu Sijia and Han Yujun beat Switzerland at the Winter Games yesterday.

New Zealand was beaten but not disgraced when it went down to Australia in ice hockey for the second time yesterday.

As 1000 elite athletes from 50 nations battle it out on snow and ice during this year's Winter Games, more than 500 volunteers are working tirelessly behind the scenes to make the event run smoothly.