Sountherners on X Games podium
WANAKA duo Nico Porteous and Zoi SadowskiSynnott were among the medals in Aspen over the weekend.
Porteous claimed gold and SadowskiSynnott silver at the X Games, the most prestigious event on the snowsports calendar.
Porteous became the first New Zealander to win gold in Freeski SuperPipe at the Games.
He became the first freeskier ever to land both his right double 1620 and the combination of a right double 1620 into a left double 1620 in a halfpipe competition.
“It has been a lifelong dream for me, so it is pretty surreal right now and pretty out of this world,” he said.
Porteous jumped into the gold medal position on his third of four runs, which consisted of a switch right 900, switch left double 1080, the historic right double 1620 into the left double 1620 and finished his run off with a left double flat 900.
“That run has been in the works for the past year and half,’’ he said.
‘‘I dreamt that run and have worked really hard at it and gave it my best shot to make it become a reality this New Zealand winter with the help of Cardrona Alpine Resort and High Performance Sport New Zealand.
‘‘To be able to land it and win the gold medal is pretty unbelievable.”
Porteous’ coach, Tommy Pyatt, said there were two main factors that led to the successful run.
‘‘The fact that Nico had almost landed the complete winning run numerous times in training over the past two weeks, and that without the crowd [due to Covid19] Nico felt there was less pressure on him, which allowed him to ski at his best.’’
Earlier, SadowskiSynott claimed the fourth X Games medal of her career — at just 19 — in the snowboard slopestyle.
Her threepart rail section consisted of a 50/50 gap to back board, front lip to switch and a switch front blunt 270 out on the flat bar.
In the jump section, consisting of two traditional jumps and two (backside and frontside) transition features, SadowskiSynnott went huge, performing a switch back 900 mute grab into a back 900 melon grab then into a cab under flip 540 and a crippler on the transition features.
‘‘Practice was going well but not the best, I was struggling with speed between the first and second kicker,’’ she said.
‘‘Going into the first run, I didn’t feel totally prepared but was ready to put down my backtoback 900s.
‘‘In the first two runs I was struggling with speed and not pulling it all together. On the third run I pulled it back to land a run and then put it all together on the final run.’’
‘‘At X Games there is definitely the feeling in the air that this is the biggest competition of the season and this is where you want to do your best,’’ SadowskiSynnott said.
Kiwis can fly . . . Clockwise from top: Wanaka freeskier Nico Porteous celebrates after winning New Zealand’s first X Games superpipe gold medal in Aspen, Colorado, on Saturday; Porteous in action under the floodlights; Wanaka snowboarder Zoi SadowskiSynnott rides her way to a silver medal in Aspen on Saturday.