Historic medal for Sadowski-Synnott
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Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has claimed silver in a tight women's snowboard slopestyle final at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
The runner-up finish behind Japan's Fukada Mari brought her medal tally to five, making her the the most-0decorated snowboarder in Winter Olympics history and taking her to equal-second on New Zealand's all-time Olympic medal tally by total.
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In action after Tuesday's postponement due to blizzard conditions the Kiwi was the last to drop in run one and went big on the jumps, linking a 1080 with back-to-back 900s.
However, an early exit on one of the rail features had cost her valuable points. Her score of 73.01 placed her third at the end of the opening round.
Japan’s Murase Kokomo led the field on 79.30, executing a technical rail section before opting for a more conservative jump line of 900, 900 and 720.
Fukada Mari also from Japan adjusted her approach on run two, dialling back the rotation to a 900, 720 and 720 on the jumps but landing cleanly. Combined with a technical rail section, her effort earned 85.70 and the highest score.
Teammate Kokomo responded by stepping up the difficulty, attempting a 1260 on the third jump, but she could not hold the landing.
Sadowski-Synnott dropped in for her second run sitting fourth. Carrying strong speed and landing deep on her jumps, she linked a 900 into back-to-back 1080s, showing clear intent to raise the difficultyt.
Once again, she lost points on the execution of the second rail. While she had lifted her score to 77.61, she remained outside the medal positions heading into the final round.
Fukada got the 1260 down clean on run three, lifting her score to 87.83 and sitting at the top of the leaderboard. Sadowski-Synnott would need to go higher than a 78.78 to reach the podium.
Responding well, she cleaned up the rail section and once again went big on the jumps, driving her score up to 87.48 to claim the silver medal — the fifth Olympic medal of her career.
Sadowski-Synnott explained her approach to her final run:
“Dropping into my last run, I took a moment to take it all in. Just the experience of being here and how lucky it is to drop in last and how privileged it is to be in that position. I felt really grateful and wanted to put everything I could into that last run, put it down when it mattered.”
As well as New Zealand's most successful Winter Olympian, Sadowski-Synnott is now the world's most decorated Olympic snowboarder.
“It feels pretty insane to be honest. I didn’t know the stats going into this Olympics, I just really wanted to represent New Zealand the best I can, and represent the sport I love and share it with the world. To have five Olympic medals, it’s pretty sick.
“Growing up in New Zealand, I started snowboarding when I was eight and I wanted to get as good as I could. I was addicted to that feeling of slowly getting better and learning new tricks.
"I just loved the feeling because it makes me feel alive and just to have the opportunity to go to the Olympics coming from the small country of New Zealand who aren’t known to be huge winter athletes, there were zero expectations. I’m just proud to represent New Zealand.”
Sadowski-Synnott’s third silver medal was her fifth Olympic medal, moving her level with kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald and equestrian Mark Todd, who all have multiple golds.
Sprint kayaker Lisa Carrington, who has nine medals, including eight golds, leads the way.