Alaska
Speedy

Alaska Speedy is one of New Zealand's most exciting emerging alpine ski racers — and her story begins long before she took her first turns on snow. Her parents, a Kiwi father and Australian mother, met in the mountains they both loved — and it was in Aspen that her mother fell pregnant with her.

Born 2008 in the Snowy Mountains of Australia, her family then settled in Queenstown, New Zealand's alpine heartland. Alaska's first time on skis came at just 14 months old — on Aspen Mountain. Her first proper runs followed at eighteen months, on the magic carpet outside her dad's office at Coronet Peak, where she grew up chasing her family across the mountain and claimed her first Interfield podium at age six. The following winter she joined the ranks of the Queenstown Alpine Ski Team and returned to Aspen to train with the Aspen Valley Ski Club (AVSC) — beginning an association that would become a cornerstone of her development.

Now 17 and named to the Snow Sports New Zealand National Team, she is making her mark on the Nor-Am Cup circuit — the second tier of the FIS alpine ladder — delivering three top-10 Downhill finishes and two top-15 Super-G results in 2025/26, good enough for a top-30 Nor-Am overall standing. Against seasoned North American speed specialists, it signals unambiguously — she belongs.

In 2025 she reached the podium at her career-first ANC race in Thredbo, finished runner-up to World Cup racer Alice Robinson at the NZ National Championships, and was nominated for the Snow Sports NZ Breakthrough Season Award.

Off snow, Alaska is all mountain and wilderness — skating frozen lakes, bike-packing alpine terrain, cold-plunging glacier rivers and arctic oceans, and training hard in the gym — with a name destined for the frontier.