New Zealand’s Winter Olympic and FIS World Cup legend, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, has done it again, winning gold at the FIS Snowboard Big Air World Cup season opener held under lights in Kreischberg, Austria this morning.
With gold under her belt Sadowski-Synnott is on track to qualify for the New Zealand Winter Olympic team for the 2022 Beijing games.
This is also the first time that the Wanaka local has landed the backside 1080 in competition. Though it didn’t start well, after crashing her first run, the three-run format with the top two scores combined meant the pressure was on for Sadowski-Synnott.
Rising to the challenge she successfully stomped a backside 1080 in her second run and a switch back 900 in her third run to take the win with a combined score of 162.40.
“It was pretty difficult [after crashing the first run], I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I wanted to land the backside 1080 in competition,” said Sadowski-Synott post event.
“I only learnt it in New Zealand this summer and so I was just stoked to land that in my second run. It really set me up for the switch back 900.”
The level of riding was incredibly high from the women with all three podium scores spanning only one point. Kokomo Murase (Japan) scored the single highest score of the night, finishing in second place with an overall score of 161.80. Snowboard Big Air veteran Anna Gasser (Austria) rounded out the podium in third with a score of 161.40.
