Kiwi snowboarding and ski duo of Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Luca Harrington have won gold in their respective events at the X Games.
Sadowski Synnott was victorious landing the world’s first triple cork in a women’s slopestyle competition taking away her 11th X Games medal, six of them gold.
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“Being able to do that run, which is a dream run of mine I never thought was possible, it means the world to me to be back here at X Games.” said Sadowski-Synnott,
“Honestly, I didn’t know if I would be on the podium again going through this injury, so to be back here in the mix with the girls and to be part of the progression means so much to me and to win this comp, I can’t even believe it.”
Sadowski-Synnott was strong in the playoffs, and laced together a solid rail section before putting down her switch backside 1260 then stomping back-to-back double corked 1080’s on the last two jumps. Scoring a 92.33, she cruised through to the final round with ease.
She then kicked it up a gear in the finals, putting down a huge backside triple corked 1440 on the third and final jump, making history as the first women (ski or snowboard) to ever land a triple cork in a slopestyle competition.
“I am just stoked to be here, and a big congrats to everyone, we got such epic conditions to ride here today so I am just so grateful.” she said.
With a huge score of 94.66 on the board, Sadowski-Synnott remained untouchable for the remainder of the competition and took the win. Kokomo Murase of Japan and Great Britain’s Mia Brookes joined her on the podium in second and third respectively.
Meanwhile Harrington won gold in the men’s ski slopestyle at his debut X Games appearance. Harrington has been training on the course as an alternate, but got the start list call up late last night ahead of today’s competition.
“I have been so grateful to be able to train throughout the sessions with everyone and get ready to go and to be a competitor. I was not sure it was going to happen, then last night after my big air training I got the email saying I was in. I was super excited and had a hard time sleeping, I was buzzing in my bed. Today was incredible I am so grateful I got to sneak onto the start list.”
As the rookie on course, Harrington had nothing to lose and left it all out there in the playoffs, qualifying through to finals in the top spot.
On the last sled lap up to the top of the course before finals, Harrington shared how he told himself “let’s win this thing”, and that he did.
As the top qualifier he was the last to drop for each of the two finals runs, but put down a flawless first run, which included his right double corked 900 bring back Japan grab and switch right triple corked 1620 with an esco grab (winning combo from the Klagenfurt Big Air World Cup earlier this month) on the last two jumps.
Switzerland’s Andri Ragettli claimed the silver medal, with the United States Mac Forehand taking the bronze on home snow.