Golden effort Snowboarder wins at World Champs
Kiwi snowboarder wins historic gold at World Champs
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has won New Zealand’s first world ski/snowboard gold medal while concussed. The brilliant snowboarder won the slopestyle gold on her qualifying performance at the world championships in Colorado, after the final was cancelled due to bad conditions.
Sadowski-Synnott suffered concussion on her second qualifying run yesterday, and was not even going to compete in the final.
“I pretty much found out [she had won] maybe 20 minutes before the medal ceremony — I found out sitting at home resting, which was pretty cool,” the 17-year-old told Radio Sport.
“I wasn’t riding the course — I wasn’t going to compete in the finals [yesterday]. There was dicey weather during qualifying and it was even worse [yesterday]. The weather was too gnarly and dangerous to compete in.
“I hurt my head, and got a slight concussion — I’m out for a few days. I was actually very stoked
on my qualifying run. I did a wildcat out of the rails like I’ve never done before . . . I only learnt it the other day.
“I was hoping to put a better run down in finals, like in X Games, but because of the weather and my injury, things didn’t work out. It doesn’t matter the size of the event — you should always be trying new things and progressing.”
Sadowski-Synnott won silver in the worlds two years ago, has an Olympic bronze, and became the first Kiwi snowboarder to win X Games gold last month.
She said her latest medal was hard to rate against her other achievements.
“It’s hard to compare . . . it feels pretty surreal now. I don’t know how to compare it to everything else. It’s definitely one for the books.
“After the Olympics and X Games, more people are watching out for me, which is kind of scary but also exciting at the same time,” she said.
She won’t be able to return home for the Halberg Awards.
The weather was so bad that the Big Air competition, in which Sadowski-Synnott won her Olympic medal, had already been cancelled.
I wasn’t riding the course — I wasn’t going to compete in the finals. Zoi Sadowski-Synnott