Snow-one better! I CAN’T GET BY WITHOUT MY MUM
The ice queen’s on board for more thrills
For hours each day, snowboard sensation Zoi Sadowski-Synnott soars through the air perfecting gravitydefying flips, but she’s the first to admit if it wasn’t for her mum, her dream year may have never even got off the ground!
It’s been a crazy nine months since the 17-year-old Wanaka schoolgirl bagged a bronze medal at February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, making history by becoming our youngest-ever competitor to stand on an Olympic podium. However, the teen reckons without her mother Robin’s early-morning taxi service, her ambition to represent the country may have stalled in the comfort of her bed on bitterly cold South Island winter mornings.
“She’s extremely important,” tells Zoi. “I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without her and I definitely wouldn’t have made it to the Olympics without her support.
“Before I got my driver’s licence, she’d have to wake up at 5am to drive me half an hour into town or even all the way up the mountain and then pick me up, take me to the gym, then make me nutritional meals so I didn’t have a bad diet.”
Robin, who put her daughter on skis as a tot, recalls, “Yes, I definitely supported her at home and gave her encouragement, but I was never one to push, or critique her snowboarding or performance. Zoi’s the kind of person who doesn’t need any pressure put upon her because she puts it on herself and that’s enough.”
Medalshine
The talented teen, who has juggled practising tricks on the snow and trampoline for 30 hours a week, as well as attending Mt Aspiring College, says it was a huge relief to perform unexpectedly well.
“About two years prior to the Olympics, I didn’t even think I would try to go, so it was really beyond my wildest dreams getting a medal,” Zoi explains. “Just getting selected was beyond anything I could have ever expected and a huge honour – and then medalling was next level!
“It was for sure my favourite moment looking back on my past year and probably my whole life!”
With her future poised firmly on the slopes, Zoi reveals it could have unfolded so differently after coming within a hair’s breadth of serious injury when she crashed in her first event, almost dislocating her right elbow and knee.
The disappointing result not only left her injured, but also questioning her ability days out from her second event.
“I didn’t really see myself doing any better and bigger,” she says. “Then everything just went really well on the day. When I realised I had come third, I felt like I was floating. I didn’t really believe it. It didn’t set in until a few weeks after the Olympics.”
With the prized medal now sitting unpolished on the coffee table at her family home in Wanaka – “we’re eventually going to get it framed” – Zoi reveals how she was left in pain after she didn’t take it off after the ceremony.
“It’s very heavy,” Zoi laughs. “I wore it for six hours straight after I got it. The next day, my neck was sore.”
Samegirl
While people often do a double-take if they see her in the local supermarket or walking along the street, Zoi’s getting used to strangers congratulating her or saying how much she has inspired them. However, she insists not much else has changed – she still hangs out with the same group of friends and skates or watches movies when she’s not training.
Proud mum Robin says she saw her daughter’s champion qualities as a youngster.
“In all the sports Zoi’s played, she has always been incredibly determined and focused,” she tells. “I saw it from a very young age in soccer. She was incredibly competitive but at the same time, having an amazing time.”
Now, with school finished for the year, the year 13 student has packed her bags and is leaving home to pursue her snowboarding dream in Japan, China and the US.
“Wowee,” sighs Robin. “I always knew this day would come, but it’s all happened so quickly. I feel this will be the start of the next journey in her life. I’m incredibly excited for her, obviously, but at the same time, it’s incredibly bittersweet.”
Zoi agrees, adding, “It’s going to be sad and hard adjusting without having school there to fall back on, and just going full-throttle into snowboarding, but I’m really excited about everything I’ve got over the rest of my life.
“Hopefully, one day, I’ll become the best in the world. I’m looking forward to the 2022 Olympics in China, which is already in sight. I’m just trying to focus as much as I can on snowboarding before my body shuts down!”