“Super-proud” snowboarder Zoi Sadowski Synnott yesterday made history for New Zealand after winning their first Winter Olympics gold medal, but bad weather played havoc with the eagerly anticipated men’s downhill skiing.
Seven golds were up for grabs on the second full day of competition in Beijing, but that fell to six when the main event of the day, the men’s downhill — one of the most closely watched events at the Winter Olympics — was postponed to today because of gusty winds.
Wind also caused the cancelation of Saturday’s third and final training run.
Photo: Reuters
There was no such trouble for 20-year-old Sadowski Synnott, who held her nerve under brilliant blue skies to take the women’s snowboard slopestyle title with the last run of the competition and make history.
“Honestly it’s absolute disbelief, but it probably means more to me to win New Zealand’s first Winter Olympic gold,” said Sadowski Synnott, who was born in Sydney and moved to New Zealand when she was six.
“It makes me super proud to be a Kiwi,” she added.
Photo: AFP
Sadowski Synnott, who spent COVID-19 lockdown back in New Zealand jumping on a trampoline to help her aerial awareness, launched into a massive jump with her final trick to earn a winning score of 92.88.
She was mobbed at the finish by American Julia Marino, who was relegated into silver with 87.68, and bronze medalist Tess Coady of Australia.
New Zealand had previously won one silver and two bronze medals at the Winter Olympics — including a third-place finish for Sadowski Synnott in the Big Air competition at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
In other events, Nils van der Poel gave Sweden its first Olympic speedskating medal since 1988, pulling off a stunning comeback to win gold in the 5,000m.
Van der Poel was a big favorite coming into the race as the reigning world champion with an undefeated record in the distance events on this season’s World Cup circuit.
He lived up to the hype in the 12-and-a-half-lap race at the Ice Ribbon oval, turning on the speed at the end to overcome Patrick Roest of the Netherlands with an Olympic record of 6 minutes, 8.84 seconds.
The bronze went to Norway’s Hallgeir Engebraaten in 6:09.88.
Sven Kramer’s quest for a fourth speedskating gold ended after finishing 6:17.04.
The 35-year-old Dutchman was the first male skater to win the same event at three straight Olympics, but he is no longer the world’s dominant long-distance performer at the oval. Four years ago, he won gold at Pyeongchang in 6:09.76.
Kramer plans to retire after the Beijing Games, but he is already assured of leaving the sport as the most decorated speedskater in Olympic history, with nine medals over the past four Olympics, including four golds.
Russian athlete Alexander Bolshunov pulled away from the pack early and won the first men’s cross-country skiing gold medal in the 30km skiathlon.
Bolshunov, the World Cup leader in distance races, grabbed a Russian Olympic Committee flag in the final stretch and waved it in the air as he crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 9.8 seconds.
“My emotions cannot be expressed,” he said after the race. “I still have not realized that I am truly an Olympic champion.”
Bolshunov and Iivo Niskanen of Finland led the race through the first four classic ski laps, but Russian athlete Denis Spitsov passed Niskanen on the freestyle legs.
Spitsov stayed out front and secured the silver, 1:11 behind Bolshunov. Niskanen held on for the bronze, 2:00 behind.
In figure skating, Russia is in first place in the team competition , after a winning performance from world champion Kamila Valieva and another strong skate from Mark Kondratiuk.
The team has 45 points, two ahead of the US, which had a couple of shaky performances from Karen Chen and Vincent Zhou to slip out of first place.
The biggest surprise on the second of three days of team competition was Japan. Wakaba Higuchi was second in the women’s short program before 18-year-old Yuma Kagiyama delivered a personal-best score of 208.94 points to easily win the men’s free skate, sending the Japanese team into medal contention with 39 points.
The team competition concludes today with the women and pairs free skate and the free dance.
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