The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are just one week away.  

New Zealand’s presence at the Games is growing, with 17 athletes set to compete this year. 

And though he won’t be competing this year, two-time Winter Olympic medallist Nico Porteous knows how they’ll be feeling. 

At age 16, he won the Bronze at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, and four years later, took the Gold in Beijing.  

But last year he decided to shift focus, stepping away from the Olympic-level competition. 

Porteous had been in high performance and competitive environments since he was ten years old, and felt it was time for something new. 

“We’re lucky that in our sport, competition isn’t everything,” he told Jack Tame. 

“With the support of sponsors, we can move into different areas such as, y’know, making films and doing one off projects, so that areas has always really excited me and inspired me.” 

And with two Olympic medals under his belt, a raft of other titles, and even a New Zealand Order of Merit to his name, he felt he had achieved what he wanted to on the competition side of things.  

“I felt like it was the right time to step aside.”  

But for those heading to the Olympics this year, Porteous does have some advice. 

“Just worry about yourself and worry about your own performance,” he said. 

“There’s a lot of external stuff that can sort of come into play, so I think the biggest skill that I took out of it and learned in the whole process was to just worry about what you’re doing and your process.” 

“Be driven by your own process, rather than someone else’s ambitions or goals for you.” 

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