Kiwi skier Alice Robinson overcomes homesickness to take big strides toward Winter Olympics dream

To reach the greatest height of any sport is never easy - something Kiwi slalom skier Alice Robinson knows all too well.

Stuck in lockdown on the other side of the world for most of the season battling serious homesickness, Robinson pushed through to win her third World Cup event last month.

Robinson told 1 NEWS she admits the past few months being stuck in Europe in lockdown have been tough.

“There were definitely times I didn’t think I had the strength to be there and times I didn’t want to be,” Robinson told 1 NEWS.

“I wanted to be home, I'd had enough, was sick of travelling, Covid tests, masks and I was missing family.”

Robinson’s mum Sarah said it was just as hard for them.

“She has gone away quite a bit on her on but, thrown in with the fact we couldn’t be there at certain times was hard,” she said.

“It just felt she was so much further away this year because of travel restrictions.”

Physically, the 19-year-old felt she was falling out of form too after missing a crucial three-month training block.

“It’s hard going into these competitions when you feel ill-prepared because it’s not what you want to feel before you throw yourself down difficult race pieces and I felt out of touch with how I should’ve been skiing and I didn’t know why,” she said.

“I think it's because I’d had no mileage or time to work on my skiing like others had.”

With all those hurdles in mind, to come back and win her third World Cup title is nothing short of inspirational, her family reckons.

“It's just blown us away to be honest, it's incredible,” her mum said.

“One of her coaches told us we won’t recognise her when she gets home just with her maturity she’s adopted this season.”

Robinson said shes also picked up some valuable lessons along with that maturity.

“You have to be brave and I’ve learned a lot this year on how to have self-belief and how to trust yourself and that you can get through difficult times and that’s going to help me moving forward.”