Brooke Tamepo of Ngāti Porou descent is a professional ice skater whose goal is to pave the way for up and coming skaters from NZ to compete in the Winter Olympics. The 21 Year Old has already competed at multiple figure skating competitions around the world.
Brooke is regarded as one of best in her age division for figure ice skating in New Zealand, she says, "I am a four times National Champion, I've won the junior ladies division two times and the senior ladies. I'm currently ranked number one in New Zealand"
Tamepo has been figure skating on the ice for fifteen years now, from when she started up until now her excitement for the sport still exist!
"I've been going to the ice ring ever since I was little, my father is an ice hockey player referee now. I basically saw it on the Olympics once on TV and I just wanted to do it and I got into it".
No one from New Zealand has managed to qualify or even compete in this particular sports at the Olympics. But Tamepo says the process to do so isn't as easy as people think and she remains hopeful that she will be able to represent Aotearoa on the international stage.
"It's been about 10 years since we've had someone at the world championship. I hope to just get us to the fourth continent so that hopefully one day someone can get us to the world champs and the Olympic Championships".
She spends a lot of her time coaching to further help further develop ice skaters wishing to compete locally and internationally.
"My goal is to try and pave the way for the younger generation and also to inspire them to achieve greater things then what I have achieved as well!"
Hemopo has returned to full training to prepare for the Asian Open Classics in China at the end of October.