No longer teenagers or underdogs, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous are poised to win New Zealand’s first gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games. Heading into Beijing 2022 they will carry the weight of expectations on their young shoulders.
Four years ago, the pair broke the country’s 26-year medal drought in PyeongChang 2018, where they took turns setting age records en route to their personal milestones.
Taking the top step of the podium would be a historic first for New Zealand at the Olympic Winter Games. Can they make the step up, and could they make it double gold at Beijing 2022?
A Kiwi race for the ages
When Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous made their Olympic debuts in PyeongChang 2018, they were young upstarts looking to upset the applecart.
That is precisely what the Kiwi duo did, and then some, as they broke new ground for their country in the cold-weather showpiece.
Snowboard supremo Sadowski-Synnott took the first turn bagging bronze in the big air event – just 12 days before her 17th birthday – becoming the youngest New Zealand Olympic medallist.
Hours later, Porteous won New Zealand’s third Winter Olympics medal ever claiming bronze in the freestyle skiing halfpipe and in the process eclipsed Sadowski-Synnott as the youngest Kiwi medal winner.
Competing against herself
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has emerged as one of the pre-eminent female snowboarders over the last five years in both the big air and the slopestyle.
Even before PyeongChang 2018 it was evident that the youngster had a bright future ahead of her winning the women’s slopestyle event at the 2017 World Championship in Spain. She turned 16 on the first day of the competition.
Sadowski-Synnott admitted she went into the last Winter Games as an underdog but will have a target on her back in Beijing 2022
“Coming into the last Olympics, I guess I was a bit of an underdog but now coming into this one, I’m exactly where I want to be and pretty keen to get after it,” Sadowski-Synnott told Olympics.com.
“I guess I feel a bit like both the hunter and the hunted. I feel like a hunter in a sense, where I’m always chasing a bit more than one hunter, but by myself, I like the pressure I put on myself to do better, learn new tricks and perform better.”