Transcript
KASETE SKEEN: It kind of started off as a joke I flippantly made over dinner one evening. The friend that we were with said,"no that's a good idea, you should do it." He said, "get on this. We'll help you sort it out." That kind of set the seed in the back of my mind, then I went away skiing for a couple of weeks and thought to myself you know what I could really do with more skiing in my life. I kind of became a bit of a ski-geek, obsessing from one holiday to the next about the next one (and) thought why not give it a try - I mean Tonga probably isn't overrun with skiers so I might be in with a shout. It's been a kind of meteoric rise from zero to almost hero at the moment.
VINNIE WYLIE: Bruno Banani competed in the luge back in Sochi in 2014. Obviously a different discipline but what influence or inspiration has that had on yourself or other Tongans that have an interest in the winter sports?
KS: He's a trailblazer definitely for Tonga - the first Tongan to compete in the Winter Olympics - and also it's kind of inspiration for not just Tongans but lots of people from non-traditional backgrounds or non-traditional Winter Olympic countries to kind of get involved. Maybe people who have passions but don't necessarily think there's an opportunity there to actually reconsider the opportunities that are in front of them.
VW: So what do you have to do to qualify for 2018?
KS: There is a points threshold I have to achieve so in skiing it's the lowest points are better. The threshold I believe is 140 points for giant slalom so that is taken from an average of my two best results. It's kind of a bit of a dark art in terms of how the points system works, in terms of who you race against, what the quality of the field is, where you come relative to the best person and who's the highest ranked person but basically it's an average of my two best results.
VW: And how many opportunities do you have to try and set those marks?
KS: As many as I can fit it. This season, European season, I'm hoping to do maybe 15 races then I'm aiming to come down there, come to New Zealand to train and compete in the Southern Hemisphere winter and then I should do some more races down there - maybe in Australia as well. Then we will be back up to Europe for the early season November, December next year. There should be quite a few opportunities for me to do that - it's just also gaining experience.
Kasete Skeen is part of a small Tongan squad currently in pre-season training and says he hopes to begin competing on the European circuit in December.
