ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — Zoi Sadowski Synnott captured New Zealand's first gold medal in Winter Olympic history, stomping down a pressure-packed run on her last trip down the mountain to win the title in women's slopestyle.
The 20-year-old was one of the very few to put down clean run on a supersized course, where hardpacked snow and bone-cold wind chills made things difficult on all 12 finalists. That included two-time defending champion Jamie Anderson, who finished ninth.
Sadowski Synnott went into her last of three runs trailing American Julia Marino, who got the silver, but came up big. She landed a double-cork 1080 on the second jump, and while not repeating that jump the way she did when she won the Winter X Games last month, her backside 1080 off the final kicker was more than enough.