Gold for Kiwi Zoi Sadowski-Synnott after late call-up to elite US event

Kiwi snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott has claimed gold in the snowboard slopestyle. Photo / Getty Images.

"Insane ... beyond my wildest dreams."

That is the reaction from an ecstatic Zoi Sadowski-Synnott , who went from second reserve to snowboarding gold medallist at the X Games in Aspen.

The 17-year-old Olympic bronze medallist has become New Zealand's first snowboarding X Games winner, triumphing in the slopestyle. She had already claimed the snowboard big air silver.

"I haven't done well in a slopestyle competition for a while so this was mindblowing to me — I'm stoked," she told Newstalk ZB's Martin Devlin from Colorado.

"I don't think I've ever got 90 before in slopestyle so that alone I was so happy on — it didn't really matter where I ended up.

"Then found I had won ... to do this today, I can't believe it."

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wasn’t even competing in today’s snowboard slopestyle final until this morning, and she came out firing from the start, never giving up the top spot, earning a 90 on her first run and a 91 on run 2.
🥇Sadowski-Synnott
🥈Hailey Langland
🥉 Enni Rukajarvi pic.twitter.com/PW8AeJjftc

— Aspen Times (@TheAspenTimes) January 26, 2019

Sadowski-Synnott became the first reserve during the week when Austrian Anna Gasser pulled out. Hours before the competition, she found Slovakia's Klaudia Medlova has also withdrawn after suffering an injury in practice.

"You have my spot now," Medlova told the young Kiwi.

Sadowski-Synnott said: "The X Games for us snowboarders is the best of the best, an invite-only which has been around so long.

"Doing this today means so much to me, probably a career highlight.

"I honestly came here this week just wanting to get a feel for the X Games — I was only in the big air at that point and focussing on that.

She described the whole experience as "sick" and the buoyant crowd as "super sick".

"I'm just going to go and hang out with the New Zealand team and celebrate, get back and do some snowboarding," she said.

Sadowski-Synnott and fellow teen Nico Porteous won bronze medals at the Olympics last year, the first Kiwis to medal in 26 years.