History has been made today at the Genting Snow Park with Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (Wānaka, 20) winning New Zealand’s first ever Winter Olympic gold medal, taking the big win in the snowboard slopestyle.
“I am in absolute disbelief, it means so much to me to win New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold, it makes me super proud to be a Kiwi.” Sadowski-Synnott exclaimed after winning gold.
After qualifying through to finals in the top spot yesterday, Sadowski-Synnott was the final woman to drop into each run of the 12 women, three run final today.
Sadowski-Synnott put down a solid first run, scoring an 84.51, which had her sitting in the top spot, but coming into run two Julia Marino (USA) put down a strong run, bumping Sadowski-Synnott into second.
Sadowski-Synnott was the final woman to drop into the third and final run. Sitting in second position she knew she would have to give it everything she had to get her hands on the gold medal.
Sadowski-Synnott went all in, landing a hugely technical rail line and lacing together a frontside double 1080 into a backside double 1080 on the final two jumps, securing the gold medal with a huge score of 92.88.
“Coming into the second to last jump I did a frontside double 1080 into a backside double 1080, the same run that I put down at X Games two weeks ago, the run I did today was the best run of my life.” Said Sadowski-Synnott.
Zoi’s lead coach, Sean Thompson, was absolutely over the moon, saying “She’s amazing and she deserves every bit of this, it’s her dedication and hard work, she’s really passionate about snowboarding.”
Zoi will take a couple days to enjoy her historical win before turning her focus to her second event here in Beijing, the snowboard Big Air.
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