Olympians parade through Wanaka
Thousands enjoyed the ‘‘Zoi and Nico’’ show in Wanaka yesterday, with a rousing haka at Mt Aspiring College followed by a large street parade.
The 16-year-old Winter Olympian bronze medallists, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous, said they had never received such adulation before.
They remained gracious and calm despite being swamped by fans.
‘‘It’s been weird because both of us have never had anything like this before. I am shattered,’’ Porteous said. The medallists were joined in the parade by some of their Olympic team mates – Jossi and Byron Wells, of Wanaka, Tiarn Collins, of Queenstown, and Britt Hawes, of Wellington.
Byron Wells had just returned to New Zealand after knee surgery in South Korea. He qualified for the finals in his half pipe event but injured his patella 15 minutes before his final. Collins also injured himself in practice and withdrew from the competition.
Jossi Wells was named in the team to go to Pyeongchang but withdrew before the competition because he had not completely recovered from a knee injury.
He went to the games as a commentator with the Sky TV sports team.
Tributes flowed at the end of the parade from Queenstown Lakes deputy mayor Calum MacLeod, Snow Sports NZ’s chief executive Marty Toomey and Cardrona Alpine Resort general manager Bridget Legnavsky.
MacLeod said the medallists’ achievements were emotional moments for him.
He also paid tribute to the medallists’ families and the Wells family for being snow sports ‘‘trail blazers’’, and to Cardrona Alpine Resort, Winter Games NZ founder Sir Eion Edgar and other members of the 21-strong Olympic team (11 from the Queenstown Lakes district).
Cardrona Alpine Resort general manager Bridget Legnavsky acknowledged the anguish felt by the injured athletes.
‘‘There are ups and downs and lots of tears. We see it all the time and these Olympics were no different to that,’’ she said.
The parade was the last official engagement for the historymaking Wanaka teens, who each broke the 26 year medal drought at the Winter Olympics on the same day – February 23 – and increased New Zealand’s total Winter Olympics medal tally to three.