Winter Olympics: New Zealand to top Australia in medal table - prediction

New Zealand's Nico Porteous claims the Gold medal at the XGames SuperPipe. Tommy Pyatt / www.photosport.nz

A media organisation is predicting New Zealand will finish ahead of Australia on the medal table at the Beijing Winter Olympics which begins later this week.

The Associated Press has predicted every medal winner at the Winter Olympics and is picking New Zealand to come home with one gold and two silvers.

AP predicts 2018 medallists Nico Porteous and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott will be on the podium once again, improving on their bronze medals in Pyeongchang.

Porteous is picked to claim New Zealand's first ever Winter Olympics gold in the freestyle skiing halfpipe event while AP has snowboarder Sadowski-Synnott earning two silver medals in Big Air and Slopestyle.

20-year-old Porteous confirmed his status as a gold-medal favourite for the Winter Olympics in Beijing over the weekend, securing back-to-back superpipe victories at the X Games in Aspen.

Porteous stunned the competition with a flawless fourth and final run, unleashing what commentators described as "one of the most technical runs ever" landed in the competition.

AP has Australia also winning three medals, two silvers and a bronze which would put them behind New Zealand on the table.

Norway is predicted to win 39 medals, the same tally that saw the country top the medal table in 2018, with USA one medal back with 38.

Hosts China is tipped to win 18 medals.

In the notable events, AP is tipping Canada to win both the women's and men's hockey golds with Russian Olympic Committee athletes expected to sweep the women's figure skating medals.