Grounded by a troubling ankle injury for much of 2024, New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is now back on top of the snowboarding world after a “mind-blowing” few weeks in Colorado.
The 23-year-old swept both the slopestyle and big air gold medals at the World Cup in Aspen, after claiming the X-Games slopestyle title at the resort in late-January.
She also became the first woman to land a triple cork in any ski or snowboard event at the X-Games when she pulled off the dizzying trick in her run to the slopestyle gold.
The triple cork involves flipping three times in the air while rotating off axis. It occasionally puts winter athletes, like American snowboarding great Shaun White, in hospital.
Sadowski-Synnott’s backside triple cork 1440 – where “backside” means starting the trick facing backwards and “1440” is rotations in degrees – threw down the gauntlet to rivals a year out from the 2026 Winter Games in Milano-Cortina.
“Landing the triple cork in a slopestyle run was something that I honestly thought was impossible, and I wasn’t even sure if I’d ever get there in my career, so being able to do that there was super special,” she told New Zealand media.
“And coming into this season, honestly it wasn’t even one of my goals, it was still such a ‘something-to-work-towards’. But being able to do it at X Games … it was definitely a dream come true.”
The trick came weeks after a humbling return to global competition at the Big Air World Cup in Kreischberg, Austria, where Sadowski-Synnott failed to make the finals for the first time at a World Cup since her teen years.
Despite plenty of hard work at training, there were nerves about executing in competition and some lingering regret about mishandling her ankle rehabilitation.
“I’m not going to lie, I didn’t do everything right by the book at the start, and it definitely delayed the process of getting back to 100%,” she said.
“It was kind of mind-blowing looking back on the last couple of weeks, and seeing how well it went.
“But when I think of the last year, post-injury and then coming into this season, the amount of planning and work me and my team have done, it just feels really rewarding.”
Already New Zealand’s most decorated Winter Olympian with a gold, silver and bronze, Sadowski-Synnott will bid to defend her slopestyle title at Milano-Cortina and medal at a third Games.
That would cement her place among the greats of Olympic snowboarding.
“Every year is different and there are so many things that could happen between now and then, but I’m really proud of where I’m at with my snowboarding right now, especially considering this injury last year,” she said.
– Reuters
