Alice Robinson does not look back on her last Olympic Games fondly.

Going into the 2022 event in Beijing, the alpine skier was among New Zealand’s hopes of a spot on the podium in her preferred event, the giant slalom.

Those hopes were dashed within seconds of her opening run, however, as Robinson struggled to get a grip in the snow, later indicating she might have had an equipment issue, and made a series of mistakes on the top section of the course which she couldn’t recover from.

She wasn’t able to improve her time much in her second run and she finished the event 22nd. She also finished 25th in the downhill event, while she did not finish in the Super G.

Now, as she prepares for her return to the Games in Italy this month, the 24-year-old said 2022 was an experience she could learn from.

“I think the last Olympics was probably one of the hardest ski-racing experiences I’ve ever had, for a lot of different reasons,” Robinson told the Herald.

“I think what I came away from it with was yeah, not very great experiences, but I think I learned a lot about the Olympics environment and dealing with pressure and how I want to kind of approach these next Olympics in a different light.”

Over the last three years, Robinson has consistently been in the medals on the International Ski and Snowboard Federation World Cup circuit, with five in the 2024 season, seven in 2025, and five already in the 2026 season.

It’s been a steady show of growth from the Kiwi, who said every campaign presented another chance to do just that and while the Olympics were a big deal, the athlete’s perspective on the event was a bit different to that of the public.

“From the outside, especially from somewhere like New Zealand where ski racing isn’t a mainstream sport, it’s kind of just you think about it from Olympics to Olympics, but I guess for us, there’s so much more to ski racing than just the Olympics, with how big the World Cup circuit is in places like Europe,” she said.

“That takes up just as much of our focus and energy and every year is so built around the World Cup circuit that the Olympics is kind of just something that pops up every four years. It’s not something that you kind of plan your four years around in a way. I think it’s obviously a huge event and there’s maybe certain things that you would shift around the Olympics, but I think it’s about just approaching every season and trying to get better and better every season and then that will then transfer to the Olympics.”

This season, she has also shown improvements in her Super G performances too, with two of her five World Cup podiums coming in that discipline, including a win in Switzerland in December.

She followed that up with a second-placed Super G finish in the next event, where she shared the podium with American star Lindsey Vonn, who a young Robinson idolised.

“When I first came on to the World Cup [circuit], she’d just retired, so we actually never raced together until last year and she was my biggest idol growing up, so I really, not in my wildest dreams, did I think that we would be on a podium, I think five years later after she retired, so that was pretty cool.”

While she has had success in Super G this season, Robinson said she was not as consistent in the discipline as she was in giant slalom, though that gave her the freedom to compete without expectation.

This year’s Olympics will be Robinson’s third Games, first competing in PyeongChang in 2018.

“It’s a bit nuts when I think about going to the Olympics the first time and it was eight years ago, which is crazy,” she said.

“There’s time to reflect and it’s amazing looking back on what’s happened, but there’s also everything is happening so fast and there’s always something new coming up, so [I’ve] got to keep my head down and just stay focused on giving my best every day, but for sure there’s been some pretty amazing moments so far.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.