It's one year until the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics Games with the New Zealand Olympic Committee planning to send a team of up to 20 athletes to compete in China.
The goal is to improve upon the New Zealand Team's showing at the 2018 Pyeongyang games which was the most successful Winter Olympic's Games in the country's history.
Integral to the teams success at the last Winter Olympics were skiier Nico Porteous and snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who won New Zealand's first Winter Olympic medals in 26 years.
Despite being only 19 years-old, Sadowski-Synnott's recent Winter X-games performance in Aspen, Colorado, took her medal tally in international competitions to nine, with four of those first place finishes. In what was one of the first major competitions of 2021 it proved to be a case of new year, new trick for the Wanaka teenager.
Photo: (Photo by Phil Ellsworth / ESPN Images)
Approaching her final run of the X-games, she'd already achieved what she had set out to do in landing both a frontside and backside 1020.
Her competitors were not holding back in perfect weather conditions, which only motivated her further.
"All the rest of the girls were absolutely sending it and I've never seen a snowboard big air competition like it before," she said, "It really fired me up to put down my tricks"
With the other riders performing well, she knew she had to do something special to put herself in contention for the gold medal and in her final run she made her first ever attempt at a backside 1260.
"I'd never even tried the trick before but I knew I'd done all the preparation for it so it was the perfect time under the X-games setting to huck a new trick for me. A lot of the other girls were doing it and have been for a while but for me I was realling working on those back-to-back 1020s so to be able to have the opportunity to try it at the X-games was so cool."
Altthough she missed the landing, Sadowski-Synott assured it's not the last time she'll be attempting the trick, which involves four mid-air rotations. The Slopestyle world champion was happy to finish the competition having achieved her target of landing back-to-back 1020's and adding a sixth X-games medal to her record.
"Achieving what I set out to do and walking away with a bronze medal as well was just a perfect way to finish off January," she said.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
In the wake of her X-games success she's wasting no time having already made the journey to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to join up with Red Bull's Natural Selection Tour.
2021 is the first year for the event created by renowned American rider, Travis Rice, which will see the world's best backcountry riders showcase their skills in a natural terrain freeride competition.
In January, Sadowski-Synnott was voted in as the competition's wildcard-entry by a panel of judges after riders were asked to submit a video entry of their best backcountry footage.
"It's a huge honour to be selected from the judges board. Travis Rice is one of the best snowboarders in the world and to be invited to this event alongside all of these amazing backcountry snowboarders is just crazy and I'm very grateful that they picked me."
While the young rider sees her inclusion as an honour, she also believes the unique nature of the tour will only improve her overall skills as a snowboarder.
"I'm just getting a taste of it and learning about all of the other aspects of snowbarding that there are to offer and just learning because being versatile in snowboarding is very important," she said.one
When the tour wraps up on February 9th the young rider will begin preparing for the World Championships where she will defend her slopestyle title - although just where and when is still yet to be decided.
