It's easy to forget, but Nico Porteous is still only 20 and has been on the circuit for years. Photo / Getty
Kiwi free skier Nico Porteous is one of the favourites for gold in Beijing, but the last four years haven't always been easy. He speaks to Michael Burgess about the long road to the top.
Back In May 2020, Nico Porteous had one of the most important realisations of his career.
Then 18 years old, the Wanaka based free skier had it all.
He was already an Olympic medallist – one of only three Kiwis to reach the podium at the Winter Olympics – and had the world at his talented feet.
But something wasn't quite right.
The constant striving, chasing better and better results, was making him miserable and starting to threaten his love of the sport.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
Winning an Olympic medal at 16 is meant to change your life – but not in this way.
"I put all this pressure on myself in 2019 and ended up having a terrible year," Porteous tells the Herald. "Not getting the results I wanted and that came down to the fact that I was putting all this external pressure on myself - or letting the external pressure get to me more than I should.
"There were these big expectations after I got third in Pyeongchang [in 2018] that I should be getting podiums in every event. I put that expectation on myself."
Something had to give.
Coach Tommy Pyatt remembers a pivotal conversation around the same time.
"He was self assessing each season, not happy with his mental preparation going into competitions, how stressed he was and how overwhelmed he was," says Pyatt.
"We sat down in my garage in Wanaka one day and he said … 'I've decided I want to be more process focussed'.
"It was quite profound. It was quite a turning point but it was a long time coming, a lot of seasons of him assessing 'I don't like spewing up at the top of the course because I am so nervous'."
Porteous will be one of the favourites for gold in the freeski halfpipe in Beijing. He is the reigning world champion and gave another reminder of his capacity for brilliance at the 2022 X Games in Colorado last month, snatching first place with a stunning final run, unveiling a complex new trick in the process.
Porteous is a natural talent, on skis since he was four and to untrained eyes, makes everything look easy. If only it was.
Freestyle skiers such as Porteous push themselves to their mental and physical limit on every run, with the inherent danger lurking in the back of their minds. One slip – or slight mistake – could mean serious injury, when you are almost 15 metres off the ground above the halfpipe.
That's why the mindset shift was so critical. Facing down those fears on a weekly basis was brutal enough, without the crushing pressure of constantly obsessing on the end result.
"I know it sounds a bit cliche and a bit cheesy but I go out there to ski at my best and to better myself, rather than chasing a result," explains Porteous.
"We are in a judged sport and can't control the outcome. You can't control whether the judges are going to like your run. The only thing you can really focus on is your own ability and your skiing."
Pyatt, who has coached Porteous for more than a decade, has noted the difference.
"Instead of turning up and saying, 'well I've got to win', he is now thinking 'well if I do these things, I'll ski the best I can and that's all that can do'."
Porteous remains intensely competitive – he describes a halfpipe duel as "going to war" but has developed a much healthier mentality.
Last year was "unreal", the best year of his life Porteous says. He achieved great results (gold at the X Games and the world championships), as his skiing reached a new peak.
There was also a three week surfing odyssey in Nicaragua, with his brother Miguel and three other freestyle skiers.
"We just surfed our brains out pretty much," says Porteous. "It was amazing."
And he also found an important silver lining from the extended winter lockdown in New Zealand.
"I learnt a lot about myself through spending so much time not socialising and being home because of Covid," explains Porteous. "Being by yourself, you find out more about who you are."
That was important, given his remarkable career so far. It's easy to forget, but Porteous is still only 20 and has been on the circuit for years.
Pyeongchang was the flashpoint, as Porteous achieved just New Zealand's third Winter Olympics medal, despite a knee injury that compromised his build-up.
"There are lots of memories," says Porteous. "Crazy memories of joy and pride and the things that come with success. Also being thrown into that media cyclone … an experience that I will never forget. But that's the past, it's about moving forward, onto the next step."
His sport demands growth, amidst the constant search for an edge.
Porteous has always been at the frontier – as a 14-year-old he became the youngest in the world to complete a triple cork 1440 (upside down three times, and four full 360 degree spins).
At the 2021 X Games he managed right and left double 1620s (four and a half full rotations), a combination that had never been landed before in competition.
He reached a new pinnacle two weeks ago in Aspen, with his extraordinary final run in the X Games Superpipe, which took him from third to first, with a perfect execution of some trademark moves as well as a never before seen trick.
New manoeuvres can take 18 months to perfect, from the genesis of the idea to practising on a trampoline, then with an on-snow airbag, before finally executing in the halfpipe.
"It's all extremely calculated," says Porteous. "We wouldn't just go out there and sling something if we didn't know we could do it."
But it still takes enormous courage, as you are spinning through the air a few storeys above an icy ditch. Porteous plays it down, saying it's about trusting in his own ability, after all the preparation and practice, but Pyatt frames it differently.
"Everybody just sees the simple process that he makes it look like in the competition but it's much more," says Pyatt. "It has such precision and there is a huge margin of error, which creates huge nerves.
"I see it the night before, when he can't go to sleep. I see it in the morning, him pacing up and down the lounge. It's a huge process to mentally build up to that competition run."
Compared with four years ago, Porteous will be a marked man in Beijing. He's one of the favourites for gold and probably only five or six others in the field can match his technical abilities.
"It is different and you do feel like you sometimes have a target on your back," says Porteous. "But you're there to do one job and that is to go skiing at the best of your ability and you can't let anything else get in the way."
Whatever happens in the Chinese capital, it feels not too much will change for Porteous.
His fame and profile have gone through the roof in recent years, wooed by huge global brands, but he seems remarkably unaffected by it.
"I'm still the same person, it doesn't change who I am or how I talk to people," says Porteous. "I don't walk into a place and expect people to recognize me."
That might be a faint hope, especially if he achieves another podium finish, but his parents (Mum Chris and Dad Andrew), along with Pyatt and fellow Olympian Miguel have helped to keep his feet on the ground.
That's illustrated when you enquire about his precious metal from 2018, expecting the historic Olympic medal to be on display somewhere in the family home.
"I couldn't tell you where it is," says Porteous. "It's in a box under the house or something but I'm really not sure to be honest.
"As a family we don't tend to pride ourselves on our actions or our achievements. We're just a normal family that live in Wanaka and happen to go skiing overseas. We don't let our achievements make us who we are. So I guess that sort of explains that."
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