Gold medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand reacts during the flower ceremony in Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou, China, Sunday.LISI NIESNER/Reuters
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott captured New Zealand’s first gold medal in Winter Olympic history, stomping down a pressure-packed run on her last trip down the mountain Sunday to win the title in women’s slopestyle.
The 20-year-old was one of the very few to put down a clean run on a supersized course, where hard-packed snow and bone-cold wind chills made things difficult on all 12 finalists, including two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson, who finished ninth.
Sadowski-Synnott went into her last of three runs trailing American Julia Marino but came up big.
She landed a double-cork 1080 on the second jump, and while not repeating that jump the way she did when she won the Winter X Games last month, her backside 1080 off the final kicker was more than enough.
She raised her hands in the air after landing, knowing what she’d done. Marino and third-place finisher Tess Coady of Australia knew it, too. They tackled her at the finish line to celebrate.
A few minutes later, the scoreboard confirmed it, and New Zealand had its first Winter Games victory – brought home by an Australian-born shredder whose family moved to her father’s homeland when she was 6.