Unstoppable Zoi Sadowski-Synnott wins Snowboard Big Air World Cup
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has continued her dominance in women’s snowboarding, claiming the win today at the FIS Snowboard Big Air World Cup in Edmonton, Canada, in a star-studded field.
The Wānaka 22-year-old says: "I am super stoked to take the win today, it's the first comp of the season for me so it feels good to go into the first one and come away with the win."
The finals went down under floodlights on the monstrous scaffold jump inside the Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, with the crowds and entertainment creating an exciting vibe.
The Big Air three run format requires the athletes to successfully throw down two different tricks in two different directions to be awarded a combined score out of 200 (and allows for one throwaway score).
Big Air 2022 Olympic silver medalist Sadowski-Synnott was the top qualifier into today’s finals, qualifying almost 20 points ahead of her nearest competitor.
After an uncharacteristic fall in her first finals run, Sadowski-Synnott was calm and collected as she dropped into her second run. She stomped a switch backside 1260 with a tail grab, to the delight of the crowd, the commentator and her team.
The judges shared the sentiment and rewarded her with a whopping 97.25 for the trick, the highest score of the day in both the women and men’s competition. Despite having crashed on this very trick the run before, Sadowski-Synnott sent the message that she meant business by putting the pressure on and immediately repeating the technical trick.
"I have been working on the switch backside 1260 for the last six months, it's a super technical and scary trick so I was super happy to put it down in competition," she says.
Zoi in action at qualification. Photo: Jérémie Perreault / FIS Snowboarding
With her third a final run to go, Sadowski-Synnott had only one high scoring jump on the board. No stranger to pressure, she took it in her stride and put down a huge backside double 1080 with a melon grab, scoring a 86.00 from the judges.
"Managing the pressure going into run two, I knew I could land the switch back 1260 and just had my fingers crossed for the back 1080. I have done that trick [back 1080] a lot of times, all the girls were riding so well, and it motivated me to put it down when it mattered."
The two tricks combined gave Sadowski-Synnott a huge score of 183.25 out of 200, a score which was untouchable by the last three athletes to drop in.
Reigning snowboard slopestyle World Champion, 16-year-old Mia Brookes of Great Britain, finished in second place today. Two-time big air Olympic Champion Anna Gasser of Austria rounded out the star-studded podium in third.
Today’s result continues Sadowski-Synnott’s incredible podium streak, which has seen her finish on the podium at every event she has dropped into for the past three seasons. This streak encompasses being crowned the Beijing 2022 Snowboard Slopestyle Olympic Champion and now eight Big Air podiums, including an Olympic Big Air silver medal and an X Games Big Air gold medal in 2022.
Fellow Kiwi Lyon Farrell (Arrowtown, 25) competed in the hotly contested men’s final after qualifying in 10th place from the semi-finals held earlier today. Farrell, hunting for a podium finish, gave his hugely technical backside 1800 two attempts, but unfortunately came unstuck on the landing both times and had to settle for ninth place.
The action continues in Copper Mountain, Colorado next weekend with Kiwi’s dropping into four different Park & Pipe World Cups.
