The New Zealand twins, who compete in snowboarding and freestyle skiing, spoke to Olympics.com about their divergent sport paths, swapping advice on the slopes, and doing each other's laundry.
(Olympics.com)
New Zealand twins Campbell and Finley Melville Ives agree that freestyling is cool.
What they do not agree on is whether freestyling is better on skis or a snowboard.
“It's obvious that snowboarding is the better sport,” said Campbell, who is competing in the three park and pipe snowboard events at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG). “Skiing is a little bit more traditional, a little bit more fancy, but snowboarding is a bit rugged, a bit cooler.”
His brother, who competes in the same events, but in the freestyle skiing category, disagreed: “I feel like snowboarders think they're cooler, but they're not. Skiing is cooler.”
The parents of the 17-year-old siblings are both avid snowboarders. But rather than snowboarding, Cambell and Finley’s first experience of going down slopes was on skis.
“We were always in the mountains and at that really young age - we started skiing at three years old - it's often real hard to get around the mountain on a snowboard, so my parents took us skiing because it's just a lot easier to learn and to get around the mountain when you're a beginner,” Campbell said.
As the brothers grew up, their father taught them snowboarding, which is when their paths diverged. Campbell decided to focus on riding, while Finley stuck to skiing – with an occasional snowboard ride thrown in.
“I can get around the mountain on a snowboard,” the freestyle skier said. “I can't do very many tricks. I can do a backflip and stuff, but that's about it. I'm a little sketchy.
“The reason why I chose to stick with skiing is because by the time my dad and mum taught Cam to snowboard, I was already a pretty proficient skier. I could ski around. I was having fun. I made lots of friends skiing, and I didn't really want to switch over to snowboarding because I was already really just happy skiing.”
While the brothers can endlessly argue over which of their sport is better than the other, the different allegiances are also the reason why they never had rivalry as brothers.
“Since we're doing different sports, there's not as much of a rivalry as if we were both skiing, for example, or both snowboarding, because there's less pressure on results or doing tricks,” Finley said. “It's more about just having fun together and that means we're way more supportive. We can just ride together and there's no pressure at all.”
Thanks to their different sports, the twins are also just as comfortable in the company of snowboarders as they are hanging out with freestyle skiers. Often the two groups hit the slopes together.
That is especially felt back at their home community in Wanaka where lifelong friendships come ahead of the fabled snowboard-skiing rivalry.
“Most of me and Cam's friends are the same,” Finley said. “I hang out with the snowboarders a lot and he hangs out with the skiers a bunch. The entire New Zealand team are all real good friends with each other, so it doesn't really matter. I'll ski with the snowboarders and it's pretty sick and vice versa.”
“It's a close knit community down in New Zealand because it's one mountain, one place,” Campbell agreed. “Everybody's doing the same thing down there, so skiers, snowboarders, you're all riding together. Just go down the hill, hitting jumps, hitting rails, having fun, and what's on your feet doesn't matter.”
The brothers made their World Cup debut in December 2022 at Copper Mountain and are also competing together at the 2024 Youth Olympics.
Campbell is currently the only halfpipe snowboarder from New Zealand at this level. His best World Cup result – 17th, in December 2023 - also came in this discipline.
Since the freestyle park and pipe disciplines in each of their sports are similar in terms of tricks, the brothers feed off each other’s advice to progress further.
“You can tell when Cam's sad or mad, and you can tell when he messes up a trick because it's just 90 degrees difference between us,” Finley said. “The tricks are only a little different. At the end of the day, they're really similar, so we can help each other back and forth with advice and it really works.”
Understanding the complexities – and dangers – of each other’s sports can also have a drawback. The brothers tend to be more anxious than other spectators when watching each other compete.
“Sometimes I get a little bit nervous for him,” Campbell said. “At the China World Cup, when he was sick the week before, he wasn't in his best mindset. I know he's doing some pretty gnarly tricks. It just makes me think, ‘What would happen if he didn't land that trick?’”
Following that December World Cup at the Secret Garden resort where the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games competitions also took place, Campbell felt those nerves again when his brother got injured during the slopestyle competition at Gangwon 2024.
Giving himself time to recover, Finley chose to sit out the Big Air competition and instead watched his brother compete and clinch bronze in the snowboard discipline.
“Whenever you're watching someone you care about compete, it's definitely more nerve-wracking than actually competing yourself,” Finley said. “He's doing the crazy levels of tricks, but you're not in control, so it feels almost more nerve-wracking than actually competing. It's definitely cool to watch, but it can be scary at times.”
Campbell Melville Ives won bronze in the men's snowboarding Big Air at Gangwon 2024.
While most snowboarders and freestyle skiers at Gangwon 2024 specialise in either the slopestyle and Big Air or the halfpipe events, the Melville Ives brothers opted to enter all three.
They have competed in all park and pipe events since their earliest days in the snow parks and have no plans to scratch any of them off their list.
“It's really worked so far. The tricks in each discipline really cross over. Halfpipe helps slopestyle. Slopestyle helps halfpipe and halfpipe helps Big Air,” Finley said. “After skiing a lot of time in pipe, going back to slopestyle, it really helps, and it almost opens your mind to other tricks and other things that haven't been done.”
For his equally versatile brother, competing in all three events is also a way to appreciate snowboarding even more.
“It's just fun because you get to ride more comps,” Campbell said. “You get to have a break from halfpipe when you're getting over it. Same for slopestyle. And it really helps me love the sport even more because I can ride all three.”
While the brothers get along on the slopes, even when one is clicking on skis and the other one is strapping on bindings, there can be an occasional disagreement off the snow. Especially when it comes to sharing a room at the Gangneung Youth Olympic Village.
“The worst thing is when there's different training days and one person is trying to have a sleep in,” Finley said. “Cam tried to sleep in this morning, and I woke up at 5 a.m. to go train, so he got a little mad.”
“The worst thing is definitely waking up early,” agreed Campbell, the morning episode fresh in his mind. “Having to wake him up or him having to wake me up, it's really frustrating sometimes.”
However, both admit there are perks to sharing a room with your twin as well.
“I can use his shampoo and conditioner,” Campbell quipped.
“I did his washing today and he didn't even realise,” Finley said. “Yeah, the best is you’re brothers so you can do their laundry.”