Silver for Sadowski-Synnott in Snowboard Big Air
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A third Winter Olympic medal for New Zealand's Zoi Sadowski-Synnott in Snowboard Big Air, earning the silver after a challenging final.
Sadowski-Synnott’s run to the podium was not quite as smooth as her qualification round, after she washed out on the landing on her first jump and needing to put everything on the line for jher second and third jumps.
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She had earlier topped the qualification rounds with a combination of a 1260 and 1080, she knew she would need to up the rotation count and land bigger tricks in the Olympic final.
Sadowski-Synnott was the last rider of 12 to drop into the big air jump. By the time she stood in the start gate, Kokomo Murase (JPN) and Yu Seungeun (KOR) had both landed 1440s and were sitting in first and second place, respectively, while Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) had a backside 1260 in the bag and was holding third place.
Sadowski-Synnott went huge with a backside 1440, but the landing got away from her, and she would need to rely on her final two jumps to get big scores on the board.
Still looking calm and composed as she headed back to the top, Sadowski-Synnott showed her class on run two, stomping the backside triple cork 1440 for a score of 88.75. The second-highest trick score of the night, this would be the foundation she needed to build on for her final jump.
In a Snowboard Big Air Olympic final, the run order is reversed so that the leaders are the last to drop. Sadowski-Synnott, then sitting in eighth place, would be the fifth rider to go. Giving it her all and opting for a personal favourite, she landed a clean switch backside 1260 for a score of 83.50, which would put her into the lead.
“I love that trick, the switch backside 1260, and I knew I had to put it down when it mattered,” she explained.
However, the podium was still far from being decided.
By now, Korean rider Yu Seungeun had landed back-to-back 1440s, and there was a strong possibility that Kokomo Murase could go for another attempt at the 1620 she’d landed at X Games only two weeks before.
Yu went for the 1440 for her third and final jump but couldn’t nail the landing to up her score and would finish her night with a bronze medal. In the end,
Murase also opted for the 1440, impressing the judges with her super-clean execution for a score of 89.25. This would jump her into the gold medal spot ahead of Sadowski-Synnott.
It was the fourth Olympic medal for Sadowski-Synnott overall in her career.
Snowboard Big Air Olympic podium:
Gold: Kokomo Murase (JPN)
Silver: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott (NZL)
Bronze: Seungeun Yu (KOR)