Judging for Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s second silver medal of the Milano-Cortina Games has been criticised, with some snow-sport experts claiming the Kiwi should have taken the gold.
The 24-year-old secured her fifth Olympic medal in the women’s snowboard slopestyle final, making her tied with three others as the second-most decoratedNew Zealand Olympian.
She scored 87.48 on her final run, propelling her into second place and sandwiched between Japan’s Mari Fukada, who won gold, and Kokomo Murase in third.
However, there has been criticism of the judges’ final decision from across the snowboarding community.
The judges took a long time to reveal Sadowski-Synnott’s score in run three before she finished 0.35 points behind Fukada.
Speaking to TNT Sports, two-time British Olympic snowboarder Aimee Fuller said she felt the final results were controversial.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (left) with Japan’s Mari Fukada and Kokomo Murase after the women's snowboard slopestyle final, an event for which the judges and the course came in for criticism. Photo / Hannah Peters, Getty Images
“If you look at the rail section, Murase’s might have been a little bit more technical,” Fuller said, “but Zoi’s jumps and execution were so clean and they were a lot more technical.
“So I’m going to put it out there and say I think the judging was wrong.”
The former Olympian felt scoring on Fukada’s winning run was not consistent.
“I think there was injustice in the results of today’s women’s slopestyle final, a real shame to see that progression wasn’t rewarded on this instance.”
The International Olympic Committee have been asked to comment.
Questions have also been raised about the speed of the course after the competition was rescheduled to take place hours after the men’s slopestyle final because of heavy snowfall.
The men’s competition faced a similar problem with speed, and Sadowski-Synnott said on Ryan Bridge TODAY the conditions played a key factor in the final.
“We struggled with speed because of fresh snow,” she said.
“They tried to clear the course but, when you have fresh snow, it hasn’t quite settled or compacted yet, so it’s not as fast and we also had a headwind, which when you’re going off 60ft [18m] jumps trying to do your best tricks, it adds a bit of a spanner in the works.”
The silver medallist went on to say the competitors knew what conditions they were going to have to deal with and everyone gave it all they had.
