Zoi Sadowski-Synnott: New Zealand's snowboard superstar who's changing the face of the sport

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has changed her own life at Beijing 2022, but also the lives of many New Zealanders and indeed snowboarders right around the world.

The 20-year-old became New Zealand’s first-ever gold medal winner at an Olympic Winter Games with a dominant performance in the women’s snowboard slopestyle competition.

She then backed it up with a silver medal in the women’s big air event on Tuesday (15 February), behind winner Anna Gasser of Austria, and believes there's a lot more to come from the current generation of young athletes.

"The progression from four years ago is pretty sick." Sadowski-Synnott said

There's been quite a jump in progression and I don’t think that will really slow down so I'm excited for the next ones."

Having also won a bronze medal in big air at her Winter Olympics debut at PyeongChang 2018, then aged 16, Sadowski-Synnott is the only woman representing New Zealand to have won multiple medals at the Olympic Winter Games.

"I'm pretty stoked with my performance," she said after adding the Beijing 2022 big air silver to her medal haul.

"I set the goal of doing my best tricks and I feel like I achieved that. Coming into big air I wanted to do the same but just missed the back 12. I'm pretty stoked nonetheless."

There’s also been a jump in standing for the young star, who is perhaps now as marketable an athlete in New Zealand as anyone, given her success, age, approach to the sport and outlook on life.

"To win New Zealand's first Winter Olympic gold means so much to me and I can't believe that I managed to do it. I'm just super proud to be Kiwi and I hope I made everyone at home proud," she said.

"It was the best run of my life."

"I am super proud of where my snowboarding has come in the last few