Winter Olympics 2022 - Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claims New Zealand's first ever gold in a dramatic slopestyle final

ByBen Southby

Updated 06/02/2022 at 09:22 GMT

New Zealand’s two-time world champion Zoi Sadowski-Synnott claimed gold in the women’s slopestyle final after a world class final run, scoring 92.88. It knocked USA’s Julia Marino off of the top of the leaderboard in dramatic circumstances, paving the way for a new Olympic champion. Marino finished in silver place whilst Tess Coady claimed bronze.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott won gold in the women’s slopestyle final at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after an unbelievable final run propelled her to the top of the leaderboard.

The two-time world champion, representing New Zealand, recorded a best score of 92.88 on her third run, overtaking second place Julia Marino on 87.68.

Australia’s Tess Coady claimed bronze with a score of 84.15 on her third run.

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After the opening run, Sadowski-Synnott led the standings with a score of 84.51.

Japan’s 17-year-old Kokomo Murase, who was impressive in qualifying finishing second in the standings behind favourite Sadowski-Synnott, only managed a score of 48.50 and was restricted to sixth place.

Two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson scored a disappointing 22.98 in her first run, managing a slightly more respectable 60.78 on her second, but was still levels below the top performers on the day.

Big air gold medallist in 2018 Anna Gasser qualified with the fourth best score - 75.00 - but performed poorly scoring 35.01 and 43.58 in her first and second runs respectively.

• Medal table
• Schedule and results
• Team GB

USA’s Marino knocked Sadowski-Synnott off her perch with a score of 87.68 in her second run, with the latter falling on her second attempt, only scoring 28.15.

Murase gained a point on her second attempt with a slightly better score of 49.05, but had a lot to do if she was going to build on her second place qualifying finish.

Coady made up the final three after the second run, the Australian scoring a strong 82.68 on her first attempt.

Marino looked on course to improve her leading score but fell on the final slope and had to settle with 60.35, but remained in the gold medal position.

Anderson’s Olympic reign came to an end after falling on her third attempt, whilst Gasser finished in sixth place despite recovering brilliantly on her final run as it looked as though she had lost her balance down the last slope, scoring a day’s best of 75.33.

Coady recorded her best score in her final attempt, but her 84.15 wasn’t enough to dismantle Marino.

Murase went big on her third run but fell hard, guaranteeing Marino and Sadowski-Synnott a gold or silver medal.

The final run of the day saw Sadowski-Synnott stick an unbelievable landing to take gold with a score of 92.88, prompting great scenes of the three medallists celebrating together before the scores were announced.

‘The biggest smiles!' – Heartwarming scenes as Sadowski-Synnott, Julia Marino and Coady celebrate

Yiming Su impressed in the men’s qualification which took place after the women’s final. He scored a big 86.80 in an impressive field to qualify as rank one.

Canada’s Mark Morris finished second in qualifying with a score of 83.30, whilst USA pair Sean Fitzsimons and Redmond Gerrard also qualified with scores of 78.76 and 78.20 respectively. Sandwiched in between in fourth was Norway’s Staale Sandbech, scoring 78.61.

Emiliano Lauzi took an interesting approach, raising eyebrows when he started off the top of the great wall - the snow wall on the edge of the slope that is there to protect the top of the course from wind. It worked though, he came seventh overall recording a respectable 71.71.

Takeru Otsuka (JAP), Sebastien Toutant (CAN), Mons Roisland (NOR), Max Parrot (CAN), Chris Corning (USA) and Kaito Hamada (JAP) all also qualified for tomorrow’s final.

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