Winter Olympics 2026: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claims slopestyle silver, Dane Menzies finishes seventh

Outside the podium positions, one run left and the last rider on the course, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott gave the women’s slopestyle final a grand crescendo.

Hunting her fifth Olympic medal, the 24-year-old saved her best for last, scoring an 87.48 to jump into second place and secure her second silver medal of this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

She finished just shy of Japan’s Mari Fukada, who scored and 87.83, while fellow Japanese rider Kokomo Murase was third on 85.80.

Sadowski-Synnott, who was this week named New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year at the annual Halberg Awards, looked as though she knew she had to score as soon as she landed her final trick.

“What a special athlete and person. Zoi’s just amazing, and she does it time and time again,” coach Tom Willmott told Sky Sport.

“So much pressure, coming from behind, a few issues there in the first couple of runs. I’m just stoked. So proud of her and all of the team.

“She had it in her, for sure. She had a winning run capability in her. You’d have seen just a little error on the third rail in section two, just came off a little bit early and that was the difference between silver and gold.

“But how epic to just put that down under pressure and come through. I’m super stoked.”

With five Olympic medals, Sadowski-Synnott is tied for the second-most decorated New Zealand Olympian alongside equestrian Mark Todd and kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald.

Sadowski-Synnott put down three solid runs in the final, with a first-run 73.01 having her sitting in third after the first round.

While she improved with a 77.61 second run, that was only good enough to have her sitting in fourth by the end of the fourth round.

But with all the pressure of needing to put down a run that counted, Sadowski-Synnott did what she has so often done in the past and took her opportunity.

In the men’s snowboard slopestyle final, held earlier in the day, Kiwi Dane Menzies finished seventh with a best score of 76.10.

Like Sadowski-Synnott, Menzies was the top qualifier, however he wasn’t able to find a medal-winning run in the final.

Chinese rider Su Yiming took gold with a score of 82.41, ahead of Japanese athlete Taiga Hasegawa on 82.13 and American Jake Canter on 79.36.

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Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.