‘I had no clue that was coming’
Nico Porteous had no clue he was making history and no idea that, at 16 years and 91 days old, he would become New Zealand’s youngest Olympic medallist after taking bronze in the men’s freeski halfpipe final in PyeongChang yesterday.
Porteous was in the gold medal position after his brilliant second run scored 94.80, but United States skiers David Wise and Alex Ferreira bettered that to win gold and silver with respective best scores of 97.20 and 96.40.
Wanaka snowboarder Zoi SadowskiSynnott, 16, earlier became the youngest ever Kiwi Olympic medallist with her bronze in the women’s big air final. But Porteous, who is 262 days younger than Sadowski-Synnott, took that honour by claiming bronze in his event just a few hours later.
‘‘I’ve been really working hard on that run for the last four years,’’ Porteous told Sky Sport. ‘‘I’ve been giving it everything I got and training as hard as I can. For me to do the two best runs of my life back to back, that’s insane.’’
Finalists in the freeski halfpipe final had three runs to record their best score. Porteous started well with 82.50 before stunning everyone – nobody more than himself – with an incredible 94.80 on his second run. It propelled the young Kiwi, who has never previously finished in the top three of any major skiing event, into first. ‘‘As you could tell, I had no clue that was coming. I was happy with the way I skied and it was something I could be proud of. For the judges to reflect that, it’s insane.’’
Porteous was then knocked off top by Ferreira’s second mammoth score of 96.00 but he could regain first place on his final run. But he virtually aborted his last chance because he had ‘‘nothing left’’.