Hi I'm Katharine a Physiotherapist from Wanaka. Most of my time I spend mending all the skiers, snowboarders and multisporters of our very active community at Wanaka Physiotherapy in the South Island of New Zealand.
Secretly, in my spare time, I am a World Cup Skeleton Racer competing internationally and aiming for the Winter Olympics which take place in Sochi, Russia in February 2014.
Last season I placed 10th at the World Championships in St Moritz, Switzerland. My best result and best result by a New Zealand female Skeleton racer. Now I am aiming for the podium. I have a current World Ranking of 17th.
It all started after a conversation 6 years ago in the pub about how travelling at over 120kmph with your face just inches from the ice sounded pretty cool who'd have thought that I would now be a position to qualify for the Olympics. A childhood dream.
Skeleton Racing is a high speed Olympic Sport where the athlete lies head first and face down, we have to run as fast as we can for 20 paces to generate speed then we dive onto the sled after which we we have to negotiate over 1500m of ice travelling at speeds in excess of 130kmph. The fastest athlete over 2 runs wins.
My goal now is to qualify for the Winter Olympics. To do this it is necessary to have the most up to date equipment which doesn’t come cheap - well not by a physiotherapist salary unfortunately. I am looking at buying a new sled which will help me compete with the best in the World and give me a chance of that top spot. This is where I could use some extra help. I am organising fundraisers to help with other equipment and our lycra suits!!! 130kmph in -20 in lycra - some people say skeleton racers are crazy.
Please check out my website www.skeleton-racer.com to see what I have been up to or my facebook page - 'Katharine Eustace New Zealand Skeleton Athlete' where I keep people up to date with what is going on as I continue on this journey.
The cost of the season is in excess of $75,000 so don’t worry if we go over the donation amount. Also if you want to discuss any further sponsorship opportunities please feel free to contact me.
