New Zealand snowboarding phenomenon Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has continued her glittering run with a slopestyle gold medal at the US Open Championships in Colorado.
The win at the prestigious event completes a 'triple crown' for the 17-year-old, after topping the podium at the X-Games in January and last month's world champs.
"I can't even explain how I'm feeling right now," Sadowski-Synnott told Newshub. "It means so much.
"[The US Open] was one of the first contests I watched when I started snowboarding and I’m just so happy to be here.
"It's been an amazing season and I wanted to finish it on a high, and I’m just so happy to do it here at the Open."
The Wanaka native lived up to her billing as the competition's top qualifier, with an emphatic opening run to earn a score of 82.55, which sent her straight to the top of the leaderboard.
"I could hear on the microphones that everyone else had landed, because I was the last person to go. But I managed to just block all of that external pressure out and just land it somehow, which was pretty cool."
Poor conditions made for challenging second runs for all the competitors, as the snowfall and strong winds limited visibility.
Sadowski-Synnott took a tumble on her first jump and was forced to change her equipment, after she clipped a rail and took a chunk out of her snowboard.
With closest rival Julia Mariano falling on her third run, the Olympic bronze medallist's final run was nothing more than a casual victory lap.
She's now looking forward to returning home for a quick break, following a hectic couple of months of competition, where she'll also celebrate her 18th birthday.
"I'm just excited to chill and decompress from the the contest season, then get into some more snowboarding and training."
Newshub.
