Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins New Zealand's first Winter Olympics gold

Going into the final run, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott was in silver-medal position. Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins New Zealand's first gold medal at Winter Olympics

By Jordan Wolf | Last updated 2/5/22

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott made history for her country Sunday, and did so in dramatic fashion.

Sadowski-Synnott captured the first gold medal in Winter Olympics history for New Zealand, coming from behind to finish atop the podium in the women's slopestyle final in Beijing. New Zealand had won 53 golds entering these Games, but all came in summer events.

Going into the final run, Sadowski-Synnott was in silver-medal position. Then, hurdling down the course at Genting Snow Park, Sadowski-Synnott busted out back-to-back 1080s that she landed cleanly, sliding into the bottom of the course in absolute glee as she knew she had a chance to jump up to gold.

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins New Zealand's FIRST Winter Olympic gold medal

Her final run earns her a first place finish in the snowboarding slopestyle competition.#WinterOlympics | @NBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/KejWj32UZT
— On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) February 6, 2022

There was no animosity from her competitors, however, as the United States' Julia Marino and Australia's Tess Coady ran over and dogpiled Sadowski-Synnott in joy as they awaited the final results. Marino sat in position to win the gold before Sadowski-Synnott's run, but watched on with her adversary as the scores were tabulated.

Moments later, those scores came in -- Sadowski-Synnott received a 92.88, much higher than Marino's second-place score of 87.68 and the rest of the competitors behind them. She had won the gold.

It wasn't the first time Sadowski-Synnott had made history for the Kiwis. At the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, she became the youngest New Zealand athlete to earn a medal when she won the bronze in the big air event.

Now, four years later -- and 70 years after New Zealand competed in its first Winter Olympics -- she's delivered her homeland its first winter gold.

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