Zoi Sadowski-Synnott continues stunning form with snowboard World Cup win

Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, Aspen Snowboard World Cup winner. Photo: FIS Park & Pipe

New Zealand snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott has completed a stunning comeback from injury by winning the FIS Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup in Aspen.

It's the third slopestyle World Cup win of her career and first since coming back from injury.

Just last week Sadowski-Synnott landed the world's first triple cork in a women's slopestyle competition, which saw her take gold at the Aspen X Games.

The 23-year-old was the top qualifier going into today's finals in Colorado, and earned the advantage of dropping last into each of the two finals runs.

She put down a solid first run that had her sitting in the top spot, but with a couple of bobbles on the rails, and some of the top riders on the start list today, there was no guarantee it would hold.

Kokomo Murase of Japan put down a strong second run, which bumped Sadowski-Synnott off the top spot, but as the last athlete to drop the Wānaka snowboarder had the deciding run.

Sadowski-Synnott put down her winning run, tidying up the rail section and then lacing her back-to-back double corked 1080's on the last two jumps.

An ankle injury meant she missed most competitions in 2024 but Sadowski-Synnott said she got some confidence coming off the Laax Open two weeks ago.

"...And I worked so hard to get back to this level and [to] be competing with the rest of the girls because they are pushing it so hard, I am so happy to be back," Sadowski-Synnott said.

"I watched her [Kokomo's] last run and knew it was going to knock my first run score so I knew that I needed to clean up that rail section and I am stoked how it came out, stepping it up from X Games last week."

Sadowski-Synnott took the win by a significant margin as the only woman to score in the 80's with an 87.80. Murase finished in second place with Great Britain's Mia Brookes rounding out the star-studded podium in third.

The men's snowboard slopestyle World Cup finals also went down in Aspen this morning, with Kiwi's Dane Menzies and Rocco Jamieson dropping in.

Menzies had a career best result, finishing in fourth place and put down a frontside 1800 for his first time in a slopestyle run. Jamieson finished in twelfth.

Fin Melville Ives and Luke Harrold are about to compete in the freeski halfpipe World Cup finals.

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