New Zealand has won its third medal at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics after Zoi Sadowski-Synnott took silver in the women’s snowboard slopestyle final.
The 24-year-old finished second behind Japan’s Mari Fukada, and her medal made Olympic history. With this result, Sadowski-Synnott now has five Olympic medals, more than any snowboarder has ever won.
She was not in the medal spots before the final run, so she needed something special to climb the leaderboard. When it mattered most, she landed a strong last run and earned a big score that pushed her into second place. After learning about her new record, she said it felt “pretty insane”.
This silver also adds to her success at these Games, where she has already won silver in big air. Her earlier Olympic medals include a big air bronze in 2018 and a big air silver in 2022. In Beijing in 2022, she became the first New Zealander to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics when she won the women’s slopestyle.
Two New Zealand fans in Italy said they were “absolutely ecstatic” after her win. They added that they could not be prouder of Zoi and said she represents New Zealand brilliantly.
