New Zealand makes history at Winter Olympics

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New Zealand
New Zealand's Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott

Beijing, 7 February 2022 (TDI): New Zealand made history as its Snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won the first-ever Winter Olympics gold medal for the country.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott is a 20-year-old Kiwi Snowboarder. She won the medal after a stunning performance on the Genting Snow Park slopes on Sunday afternoon, in the women’s slopestyle final in Beijing.

During the course of the competition, Sadowski-Synnott expertly navigated the rail section well before running into the three jumps. The first one was a 900 then back-to-back 1080s while the second one was absolutely tremendous, touching down the bottom of the hill and maintaining uprightness.

Julia Marino of the United States won the silver medal by coming second in the contest after Sadowski-Synnott, hence winning the first-ever medal for the US in the Beijing Winter Olympics. Whilst Tess Coady, the Australian Snowboarder won the bronze medal, coming third in the contest.

A jubilant Zoi Sadowski-Synnott stated that she was in “complete disbelief”. She made these remarks after the medal ceremony. Sadowski-Synnott earned the honor of breaking New Zealand’s 70-year gold medal duck at the Winter Olympics along with becoming the first New Zealander to win more than one medal at the Winter Olympics.

Previously, she had also won a bronze medal in the big air at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics. Prior to Sadowski-Synnott’s win, the silver medal of Annelise Coberger in slalom at Albertville in 1992 was the best result for New Zealand at the Winter Olympics.