Kiwi snowboard sensation Zoi Sadowski Synnott has claimed her second podium finish of the 2021 X Games at Aspen, Colorado.
The Wanaka native clinched a bronze medal in the Big Air event to hang alongside the silver she won in the slopestyle on Saturday.
The 19-year-old Olympic bronze medallist landed a front 1080, then sealed the deal with a back 1080 for a combined score of 86 to secure the fifth X Games medal of her career.
"To get on the podium was amazing, because of how high the level of Big Air is right now," Sadowski-Synnott says.
"My goal for the event was to land back 1080 and front 1080, that’s what I came here to do so, I am super happy."
Big Air is a 30-minute 'jam' format, where the athletes take as many runs as they can within the time window. Each jump is scored out of 50 and their top two scoring tricks are combined to give a ranking out of 100.
"The level of riding was so high and the conditions were perfect," she tells Newshub.
"Bluebird, no wind, and there was a fresh dusting yesterday which left some nice snow going into the jump.
"I'm just super stoked with how I rode and with the result."
After a 24-hour delay due to adverse weather, Sadowski-Synnott took to the slopes in ideal conditions, crashing on her first run, before recovering to stomp her front 1080 for a score of 44.
In the third run, she came up just short on the back 1080, but managed to land it cleanly in her fourth to move into third place with 42.
The teen then threw caution to the wind on her fifth in final run in pursuit of the gold, attempting a huge backside 1260 that she couldn't quite stick.
"This was the first time I have ever tried it," she admits.
"I was feeling good and the jump was perfect. I knew if I wanted to win, I had to try the back 1260.
"It was sick to be in that position where I was confident in trying the trick.If I'd landed it it wouldve been a first try, first land for me and I would've been so stoked.
"But just to land the front 10 and back 10 nonetheless was amazing for me."
American star Jamie Anderson won gold - the 19th X-Games medal of her stellar career - while Japan's Miyabi Onitsuka took silver.
Although Onitsuka had the same combined score as Sadowski-Synnott, she held the higher single trick score (47), which ranked her ahead of the Kiwi.
Sadowski-Synnott will move on to compete at the invite-only Natural Selection event in Wyoming later this month, where she'll take on the best back country riders in the world.
Then preparations will begin for the world championships, which has yet to have a new date and location confirmed, after the original competition in China was cancelled.
